Lego Ninjago Movie OC Insert
by GeekyGirl183
Summary: (Shout out to LouTheStarSpeaker for the awesome description entry) It's Lloyd's job to protect a city that hates him from a father that can't even pronounce his name. Not exactly number one in the life department. But at least his friends have his back, including one best friend who never forgets a birthday.
1. Before We Begin

Some changes are being made both to the movie, especially since I know how some fans didn't like the changes the movie made from the show, and for my OC's to fit the movie better along with the existing characters.

Changes Being Made:

\- Aeria (16 y.o.) lives with her big brother Morro

\- Morro is alive and a technical adult (19 y.o.)

\- Aeria, Morro, and their parents were all involved in a car crash that killed their parents and left them orphaned, but Morro took responsibility for Aeria

\- Xia and Zane are nindroid twins with the elemental power of Ice

\- Jay is Nya's boyfriend and Kai is her brother, per the show

\- Skylor is the owner of Chen's restaurant from Season 4


	2. (Slightly Modified) OC Files

Name- Aeria Wiater

Element- Wind

Personality Traits- Defensive, Athletic, and Artsy

Appearance- Long black hair with a purple streak that is usually braided on the left side of her head, right eye is black with a scar over it, is usually seen wearing her black leather motorcycle jacket with matching fingerless gloves, and riding boots with jeans and a t-shirt

Mech- Purple dragonfly mech with stun laser in the tail

Wind Powers-

• Aerokinesis- Manipulate the air and wind

• Aeroportation- Teleport using air/wind currents

• Wind Generation- Create blasts of wind

• Flight- Have the ability to fly at will

• Levitation- The ability to make anything rise up in the air and move around under your control

Name- Xia Julien

Element- Ice

Personality Traits- Caring, persistent, adventurous, impatient, shy, and smart for her age

Appearance- White hair in a bun, light blue eyes, wears light blue sweater vest decorated with snowflakes over a button-down shirt, and white pants

Mech- Shares the Ice Tank with her twin brother Zane

Powers-

Control ice, snow and other forms of frozen water

Control and manipulate the snowy weather

Freeze things in solid ice

Lower the temperature to freezing temperatures


	3. Backstory Prologue

AN- Warning! Contains sibling feels, an extreme crash scene, and a bit of blood is mentioned. Read at your own risk if sensitive to any of the previously mentioned.

1 Year Ago...

Aeria's POV

"Riri, please stop fidgeting in your seat." My mom, told 15-year-old me as I wriggled in my seat with a wrapped present in my lap.

"I'm sorry but I can't help it, I can't wait to see him."

"Listen to your mother, we will be there to pick up your brother soon and you should not be excited for where we have to pick him up from." Dad, chastised me as I looked down in shame.

"It was his friends who stole that stuff not him." I whispered to myself as I thought of my dad's words.

It had been 2 years since my now 18-year-old brother, Morro, had been caught stealing things on a bet from some of his friends and sent to a juvenile detention center. I had to watch with tears in my eyes as he was taken away by force by men in uniforms while I was told to go to my room.

"There he is!" I waved out the window to my brother who was on the sidewalk in front of the building with his bag in hand and the head of the juvie, Carl, with him.

"Morro," Mom rushed out of the car to bring him into a tight hug, "Are you ready to go home?"

"Yes, mom." Morro eked out from his position squished in mom's grip while I sat in the car, giggling at his changing light blue face

"If you ever do anything like that again, we will ground you into the ground." Dad told him half-joking, half-seriously.

"Your son was a bit rough first coming in, but I believe his behavior is acceptable enough to warrant a return home." Carl told our parents as Morro got into the car to hug me.

"Hey, what's with the gift?"

"It's my friend's birthday today and we're on the way to the party now."

"The Garmadon kid?"

"Yup."

"He's a good friend?"

"The best friend, even though the other kids keep telling me to stay away because he's evil." I punctuated my sentence with air quotes, making Morro smile and lightly.

"You see the best in people, it's just your thing." He ruffled my hair to my dismay, so I tried to mess up his hair, until the car doors opened and made me stop.

"We will be sure to keep an eye on him from now on." Mom assured him as they got in, waving goodbye, and beginning the long drive home.

On the freeway into Ninjago, there was a long tense silence until Morro broke it with,

"I'm sorry OK, can you please stop giving me the silent treatment?"

"Look, we understand that high school was hard for you, but that's no excuse for you to skip school and steal from stores." Dad scolded Morro before Mom cut in with,

"We're trusting you to set a good example for your sister," The two turned around in their seats to face the two of us before Dad continued with, "and to be responsible enough to take care of each other when we're not around."

"I understand, just stop being so harsh on Ari, she was just trying to cover for me."

"We know, at least we don't have to worry about you two fighting all the time." Robert assured him.

"We cool bruh?" Mom tried to say in a "hip" way, but it just made the two of us burst out laughing before Dad asked in the same way,

"What, what's the dealio?" Making all of us laugh even more as we all forgot about what they had been discussing before.

As our laughter started to die down, I looked through the front window and saw that a large truck up ahead was seen tipping over, blocking half the street with its back.

"Look out!" I screamed, dropping the present in my lap to point up ahead, making Mom and Dad snap forward again.

"Turn turn turn!" Mom cried out as Dad started turning the steering wheel as far as it would go in an effort to avoid the truck.

Just as the car started to turn, another car's back hit the truck, sending it spiraling behind them and hit the car from behind making it flip over and roll down the street.

Meanwhile, inside the car, everything was moving in slow motion for me as the glass shattered from the windows all around me and the front airbags had deployed too late.

In all the slowed madness, I saw that Morro had, somehow, managed to loosen his seatbelt to where he dove toward me to engulf me in his arms protecting us as the car stopped rolling and skidded to a stop upside down.

Time resuming its natural course again, me and Morro were both hanging upside down in our seats, arms dangling over our head as we blinked dazedly and flashing lights were seen outside, wrenching the doors open.

A few minutes later, we were sitting on the sidewalk with one blanket set over both our shoulders, me leaning into my brother as he held me close, watching the ambulance that took their parents drive away. The truck driver that came to take our smashed car away came over to me with the crumpled present box I had dropped before the crash and handed it to me, which I half-heartedly accepted.

Blood dripped down from a cut over my eye while my brother's back was covered in mini scratches from taking the hits from the broken glass for me and all were painfully cleaned by another doctor who kneeled in front of us to work.

The two of us were asked questions by a police officer, but we just sat there holding each other in a dazed state before we were put into a car to drive to the station.

Later, as we sat in a cubicle an officer had told us to wait in, I finally moved, looking up to my brother asking with fear laced in my voice,

"What's gonna happen to us? I'm scared..."

Morro opened his mouth to answer, but decided to close it as he just held me closer, resting his head on top of mine as I started to fall asleep.

Right before I fell into a dreamless sleep though, I saw an officer come into the cubicle and ask my brother,

"Are you the new legal guardian of your sister?"

"Yes..."

A Week Later...

3rd Person POV

The day of the funeral was cloudy and rainy as everyone had dressed in black and held matching umbrellas over their heads. A few people had shown up, mainly friends and their parents of Aeria and a few of their mom's coworkers, all gave their condolences to Aeria and Morro before they left.

They two siblings had let the rain drench them to mask their tears as they stood between the two graves, until Morro insisted they leave, Aeria refusing to go, so he let her stay while he waited at the cemetery gates.

For a while, Aeria just stood there, eyes closed to stem her tears when she suddenly felt the rain stop falling on her.

She opened her eyes and turned around to reveal her best friend, Lloyd, holding his umbrella over her as she looked at him with gratitude in her eyes as she lightly smiled.

"Thanks..."

"Lloyd!"

They both turned to see that Lloyd's mom, Koko, was calling out to him from the sidewalk.

"Here..." Lloyd held out his umbrella to her and she took it before he turned to run off.

"Wait!" Aeria held out her hand to give him his, week-late, birthday present; a wrap-around leather bracelet with green beads and a silver yin yang charm on it.

"Th-thanks." He took the bracelet and put it on, smiling to see that it fit, before waving bye and running through the rain to get to his mom. Aeria stood there watching him leave before she decided it was time to go and walked to the gate to join her brother in their walk home.


	4. Before School Snafus

1 Year Later...

3rd Person POV with Aeria

Another day another battle… Aeria thought to herself while eating her cereal and watching the Good Morning Ninjago show as they made their 95% chance of a Garmadon attack forecast.

Spooning another mouthful of cereal, she felt someone poke the back of her head and she turned to smile at her big brother Morro.

"Come on Ari, shouldn't you be on your way to school already?"

"Shouldn't you be on your way to work already?"

"Touche." Morro told her as he began packing a bag for work.

His part-time job was washing windows and he made a pretty decent amount, enough to support himself and Aeria and he was always offered tips, but he didn't always take them.

Morro turned the volume on their mini tv up just as Robin, the news lady, was announcing local birthdays,

"Celebrating birthdays today are this hot dog guy, this panda and, uh-oh… Lloyd Garmadon. The son of the evil Lord Garmadon."

The screen flashed to a picture of Lloyd awkwardly smiling as Garmadon's laughter sounds in the background.

"Must be tough to be that kid." Robin concluded right before Morro decided to turn the tv off.

"I feel bad for him, the city's worst villain is his father and all of a sudden that makes him a bad guy too, it's not right…" Morro crossed his arms. I was about to agree with him when a knock sounded at the front door.

When Morro answered it, their neighbor, Abigail Tyson, was right outside,

"Your rent's overdue Morro, I can't hold off on the excuse to the landlord for much longer."

"I told you my paycheck isn't until tomorrow and I can bring it to him myself."

"Ok, but please be careful, you know how he gets when you're late. Good morning, Aeria." Abigail waved to Aeria and patted Morro on the shoulder before she left.

"Thanks, Mrs. Tyson." Morro thanked her before closing the door.

After the accident, the two of them had to move to a smaller apartment that Morro could afford and Mrs. Tyson had come over often to make sure they were doing alright and to provide them with food or money if need be since she had no children of her own.

After Morro closed the door, he rubbed his face tiredly and went back to getting his things for the day together.

"Hey bro, why don't you let me get a job too? That way it's not just you helping out around here." Aeria suggested.

"No way, I can take care of us and you need to focus on getting an education so you don't end up like me."

"What would be wrong with that?" She asked, making Morro freeze in place and she instantly regretted asking so she shoved another spoonful into her mouth.

She knew that as great of a brother he was now, he still regretted his mistakes of the past and was trying to make up for it by stepping up and taking care of them like their parents wanted before the accident that took them from them.

"Hey, where's my hoodie?"

Aeria stopped midchew when she realized she was sitting on it.

"I have no idea." She responded with a half-full mouth before she got up to wash her bowl and he saw it on the chair.

"There it is." Morro picked it up and threw it into his bag, "Come on or you'll be late."

"Ok ok." Aeria responded mildly as she put her black leather jacket on.

"Don't forget Lloyd's present." He reminded her pointing to the little box and card on the countertop.

"Right! Can't believe I almost left without them." Aeria grabbed them and placed them in her backpack as they left the apartment and Morro locked the door behind them.

"Let's go, I'll give you a ride since you already missed the school bus." Morro put on his motorcycle helmet and tossed Aeria hers as they got onto the green and purple streaked motorcycle before riding off.

Slightly Earlier...

3rd Person POV with Lloyd

After waking up to a particularly disappointing phone call from his dad, Lloyd went downstairs to eat breakfast before school.

"Lloyd! Good morning!" Koko cheerfully greeted Lloyd as she packed her purse for work.

"Mom, hey, um, here's a thought. What if I didn't go to school today?" Lloyd asked nervously.

"What? Oh, no! You don't want to miss school, honey. These are the best years of your life."

"Um, have you… Have you been to high school? 'Cause, uh… It's judgey. Pretty judgey."

"Oh, honey. You just need to give them a chance to see the real you."

"Yeah, I don't think I can actually show people the real me."

"That's not true. What about Aeria? You're always talking about her and she's a nice girl."

"She's just a friend and I think even she thinks I'm weird sometimes."

"But she's still your friend, isn't she?"

Lloyd stayed silent as he couldn't think of anything to say back.

"See? All you've got to do is just show people the person you are on the inside." Koko placed a hand over Lloyd's heart, "Right here. Where it matters most. Oh, and also don't forget, if your dad attacks the city again today, just be sure to…"

"Duck and cover until the Secret Ninjas give the all-clear." They both chorused in unison before Koko reminded him,

"Oh, and also, don't forget,"

"Yeah?"

"Have a happy birthday, honey."

"Thanks, Mom. I'll try my best."

"Of course you will!."

They both walked out of their home when Koko remembered,

"Oh and could you ask Aeria if could come over tonight, there's something I need to give her since today's also..."

"Oh right…"

They both trailed off, Lloyd looking down at the bracelet hidden under his sleeve, remembering today was the day of the accident and Koko remembering how she had been good friends with their mother before the accident.

They both knew today was supposed to be a happy day for Lloyd, but a mournful day for them, but Koko shook it off and said goodbye to Lloyd with a bright smile on her face.

Later, after a long and awkward bus ride to school, Lloyd stepped off the bus to see everyone either glaring at him or whispering about him out loud about how his dad is evil and ruins everything. Yet he tried to make his way through the crowd with a friendly, and still slightly awkward, smile.


	5. Heroes on the Way

3rd Person POV at School

About 10 minutes of riding later, Morro pulled up to the high school and took Aeria's helmet from her as she got off.

"Have a good day, Riri." Morro gave his sister a side hug calling her by the nickname their mom used, before he revved the engine and rode off to work.

"I'll try…" She mumbled to herself as she watched her brother leave, knowing that he knew today was the day of the accident a year ago.

Pulling it out from her backpack and putting away Lloyd's present in her jacket's inner pocket for safekeeping, she went into the school to look for her friends.

A few minutes of walking through the halls, she saw up ahead that all her friends, Kai, Jay, Cole, Nya, Zane, and Xia, were all gathered around Lloyd, Kai, Xia, and Zane having wished him happy birthday already from the way he was clutching his arms.

As Aeria was making her way over to them, she saw that the cheerleaders were also on their way over to Lloyd, no doubt to make fun of him again.

"Not again…" She mumbled as hurried over there.

"Hey, everyone, look!" The head cheerleader Chen started to mock them, "It's Garma-dork and the dork squad! You wanna hear our new cheer?"

?"L-L-O-Y-D.

His dad is bad and so is he.

Boo, Lloyd!

Boo, Lloyd!

Boo, Lloyd!"?

"Great chant! I'll bet you got a number one hit on your hands." Lloyd let it slide, or tried to at least, with a slightly forced grin.

"Or you guys can be number one to leave or you get hit." Aeria announced from behind them as she punched her fist to her palm, scaring the cheerleaders.

"Let's go before the Garma-freak sics us!" Chen and his posse ran away with their pom-poms waving in the air.

"Too bad her Mommy and Daddy aren't here to ground her." Aeria could hear one of the cheerleaders and she just scoffed while rolling her eyes before going over to her friends.

"Thanks, those guys were getting annoying." Nya thanked Aeria as she went to give her a fist bump.

"Indeed." Xia added with a stiff nod.

"No problem, no one treats my friends like that and gets away with it." Aeria declared in a dark voice, making everyone, but Cole, lean back slightly.

"I'm simultaneously flattered and terrified." Jay cowered further behind Cole as he continued to listen to his boombox the whole time.

"And that last comment was a serious blow, you alright?" Cole asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Aeria responded a bit pointedly causing no further questions to be asked about the obviously painful matter.

"Aeria, hey…!" Lloyd waved a bit awkwardly to his friend.

"Hey," Aeria went over to Lloyd and pulled out her present and card before saying, "Happy Birthday Lloyd." She handed them to him with a smile.

"W-wow thanks I uhh…" Lloyd thanked her but was interrupted from saying anything more when the school bell rang.

"Uh I better get to Physics, see you guys later." Aeria waved to the rest of the group before walking away to her class.

"Can't believe she threatened Chen like that, she rocked." Cole complimented impressed.

"I can't believe he actually ran away." Jay admitted.

"He must have believed Aeria was actually going to make him sick."

"That's not what he meant Zane."

"Then of what sickness did he mean?"

"Nothing Xia…"

All his friends' voices blended in the background as Lloyd watched Aeria leave and disappear around a hallway corner with a lopsidedly shy smile on his face.

After a few seconds, he looked down to the present and card in his hand, also looking to his right wrist where the bracelet she made him a year ago was still attached, the leather a bit scuffed in a few spots and the beads were slightly scratched, but still intact.

He thought about the day she gave him the bracelet until he felt someone pound on his shoulder, snapping him out of his thoughts.

"C'mon Lloyd we gotta get to class too." Kai reminded him, patting his shoulder as they all walked off to their class.

_Short Time Skip_

As the teacher was lecturing on the importance of social studies, Lloyd decided to open Aeria's gift.

Looking down at the present in his hand, he opened the card with a green swirled cover first; inside, the quote "Friends become our chosen family" was written in purple handwriting with the team's respective colors in decorative swirls around it and little, color-coded comments from everyone.

"Aeria made the card, but we all signed it." Jay whispered from the seat next to him.

"Wow…" Lloyd whispered seeing how much detail was put into the card, but right before he could open the box, sirens were heard from outside making the teacher drop her pointer stick and say,

"Uh-oh. It's Garmadon!"

_"Thanks, Lloyd."_ All the students chorused from behind him sarcastically.

"You know what to do. Duck and cover!" All the students did as they were told, but Nya, Xia, Zane, Cole, Kai, Jay, and Lloyd all jumped up raising their hands and asking in unison,

"Can I have a bathroom pass?"

"I think you mean, 'May I.' 'May I have a bathroom pass?' You know what? Do whatever you want." The teacher tried to correct them from where she was cowering under her desk before she relented and let them go.

"Come on, come on!" Kai yelled excitedly as they all ran out, or in Nya, Xia, and Zane's cases rolled out, as they arrived to their lockers, they saw that Aeria was already there, leaning against them before she jokingly asked,

"What took you guys so long?" Before they all put their hands together and announced,

"Ninja, go!"

"Ninja team, shout out your call signs." Lloyd shouted out to everyone as they all went to their respective mechs after changing into their gi's and their computer system prepared their mechs (computer speech will be bold).

"Kai, light it up!"

"Whoo! Fire mech! So ninja!" Kai announced from his mech that got up off a giant chair and prepped its blasters.

**"Fire mech ignited."**

"All right, take it away, sis!" Kai told Nya as she jumped up to her Water Strider mech that was perched on the ceiling of their headquarters.

"Water mech. Ready and standing by."

"Zane and Xia! Your turn, guys!"

"Ice mech." Zane and Xia chorused as Zane was seated at the steering wheel of the Ice Tank Mech while Xia sat in the back where she controlled the ice blasters.

"Loading. Loading. Loading…" Zane and Xia's eyes blipped out to loading icons before they announced,

"Ready!"

"Ready, Jay?"

"Yeah, yeah, I got this. Lightning mech, ready." Jay struggled a bit to get into his Lighting Jet Mech, but managed to get in before pulling down his hood, "Wait! No, not ready. Ready."

"Cole, do you wanna kick Garmadon's butt?" Nya asked Cole as he finished tying his hair up and let his one-wheeled Quake Mech lift him into the cockpit where his turntables were waiting.

"Earth mech."

**"Turntables at 33 and a third RPM."**

"Ready and standing by." Cole laid down a track as the lights in his mech changed colors.

"Ari, you ready for some action?"

"Let's throw caution to the wind." Aeria declared after she parkoured her way up to her purple Dragonfly Mech, which was parked right next to Nya's mech.

"Wind mech, ready and standing by."

"Green Ninja. Ready and standing by." Lloyd announced from his green dragon with gold highlights mech.

Everyone finished preparing as Cole intensified the music for dramatic effect.

"All ninjas, hit it!" Lloyd's mech blew out some green flames and everyone drove, flew, or swam their mechs out of the recycling center to battle.

"All right, ninjas, follow me!"

"As long as we have these mechs, we're unstoppable!" Jay announced excitedly as he and Aeria flew through the roof out into the open air.

"If we were the Beatles, you would be John, you would be Paul, you would be George, and I would be their computer." Zane told the guys as they all rolled out.

As the gang headed toward the city, the people were running around in a frenzied panic yelling and screaming to stay away from certain places that had already been invaded by Garmadon's forces, until the ninja came in and started to destroy a couple of the enemies' machines as they made their way through the city in their giant mechs: Cole, Zane, Xia, Kai, and Nya on the ground while Jay, Lloyd, and Aeria flew through the air.

Lloyd waved down to the citizens as they all cheered enthusiastically and one child could be heard yelling,

"We love you, Green Ninja!" Which seemed to give Lloyd a sense of pride as he began to direct his team,

"Jay and Aeria, you guys take the air."

"10-4, good buddy." Jay announced from his position over the city.

"Got it." Aeria responded as she stunned two henchmen who were attacking a hot dog stand with her dragonfly's tail blaster.

"And take it easy on the stun blasts!"

"Fine…"

"Nya, water."

"It's a dangerous and fascinating environment." Nya stated as she made her mech do a full flip over a bridge on the water.

"I know, right?"

"Kai, Zane, Xia, and Cole, you guys take downtown."

"Already here, dude. Taking some heavy fire." Kai responded making his mech dodge enemy fire.

"Hold on, Kai. I got you covered!" Cole came to Kai's aid by making his Quake Mech smash the ground sending a shockwave to the mini shark mechs, "Have you heard my latest track? It's a smash."

"Thanks, Cole."

"Jay, you've got bogeys on your six."

**You've also got them on your three, one, seven, five, six, eight, nine, and two.**

"Oh, crabs! Crabs!" Jay yelped as Garmadon's flying forces tried to strike him down using crabs.

"Get your affairs in order, Lightning Ninja!" The lead of the force yelled to Jay until Aeria flew her dragonfly over and yelled,

_Hang on buddy, I got you..._ Aeria thought as she flew her mech around Jay.

"You mess with my friends, you get the stinger!" She yelled, knocking some of the flyers away to follow her before she stunned all their drivers, but some still stuck to Jay.

"Ah! I gotta charge up my supersonic dynamo. Come on, charge!" Jay yelled at the charge meter in front of him to hurry up, "Charge! Hurry up! Charge, charge, charge! Charge! Hurry up! Charge, charge! Clear!"

Every henchman within the range of Jay's sonic glider were electrocuted as he and everyone continued to defeat Garmadon's forces one by one.

"Whoo-hoo! Whoo! Bam!" Nya called out as she and her mech dove through the air to crash and destroy several shark mechs in a row.

"Zane, you are the man!" Kai complimented Zane after he and Xia managed to freeze out several crabs in a sliding move.

"Yes. I'm a normal human teenager."

"And Xia you're... the woman?"

"I am an ordinary adolescent female."

"Nice work, guys. I'm going after Garmadon." Lloyd announced to the gang before he noticed that a crab mech was trying to jostle a school bus off the highway.

"Somebody help us!"

"Classmates, hold on."

"I got your back, Lloyd." Aeria told him over the comms as she directed her mech to the crab and used her Stun Laser on the first crab to temporarily paralyze the driver while Lloyd sent a few missiles their way. Unfortunately, the missile explosion was all it took for the school bus to be pushed off.

"Oh, no!" Lloyd made his mech dive down toward the falling school bus. Aeria watched as the kids inside screamed as they fell, the memory of the crash flashing through her mind right before Lloyd caught the bus in his mech's claws and set it back down on the road, the crowd watching them cheering,

"N-I-N-J-A!"

"N-I-N-J-A! Ninjas!"

The kids inside cheering joyously as one child looked out the window in admiration and thanked Lloyd,

"Thank you, Green Ninja!"

"You're our hero!"

"I wanna be him when I grow up!"

"Hey, Lloyd, your dad… I mean, uh… Garmadon's almost at the mayor's office!" Kai informed Lloyd as Garmadon's shark mech was stomping through the street towards the mayor's office.

"I'm on it. Ari, you got me?"

"Huh… Y-yeah, right behind you." Aeria shook out of her daze and popped open her mech window to ready her bow for use.

"We've got you surrounded, Garmadon."

"You're too slow, Green Ninja." Garmadon made his shark mech scurry around the city, settling behind a building but with its tail sticking out, "You can't catch me. Where am I? Am I over here? Or am I over there?"

"You are right behind that building. I can see your shark tail sticking out."

"Oh, let me grab that. Where's Garmadon now?" Garmadon tried to make his voice sound like it was echoing from around Lloyd and Aeria, but they both looked at each other in disbelief, Aeria rolling her eyes around and waving her hands around her head in a "cuckoo" motion making Lloyd smile under his hood as Garmadon continued his charade,

"Am I over here, here, here? Or am I over there, there, there, there? It's like a house of mirrors in here. I-is your ninja friend _mocking_ me?!"

"Uhhh… do you think you're hiding right now? Do you actually think we can't see you?" Lloyd got the attention off of Aeria by asking his dad right before he made his mech pop out from behind the building.

"Well, if you can see me, why don't you shoot me?"

"Gladly…" Aeria fired a stun arrow as Lloyd launched a small missile at his dad's mech, Aeria missed, but not Lloyd.

"Ow! That was, like, in my kidney!"

"Why do you want to conquer Ninjago so badly?" Lloyd demanded to know before Garmadon responded,

"Because there's something very, very special here."

"What...?" Lloyd's eyes widened a bit at the thought that maybe his dad cared more about him than he thought.

"I'm gonna let the walls down for just a second, Green Ninja… and Purple Ninja?"

"Violet!"

"Go... Go on." Lloyd interrupted Aeria's protest as Garmadon continued,

"About 16 years ago, I lost something I should have never given up..."

"What is it? Just say it. It's okay, you can say it."

"I had this guitar in college, and I traded it stupidly for, like, a jacket or something."

"Seriously?" Aeria questioned with a half-lidded glare.

"What? I legitimately thought I could play an instrument, but it turned out I'm actually not that musically inclined." Garmadon admitted to Aeria, making Lloyd ask in disbelief,

"_That's_ what you were referring to?"

"Yeah. What else would I be referring to?"

"I don't know. _Maybe_ something else. Think about it."

"What? No!"

"Are you sure there's not any other sort of connection you have to the city? Nothing?"

"There is someone in the city I love very much."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. I remember when I first laid eyes on him."

"Go on."

"The last time I saw him was, uh, I guess about 16 years ago, too."

"Yeah?"

"I was just an irresponsible kid and…"

"Uh-huh."

"There was this… guy who made, probably, the best sushi I've ever had in my life. You never knew what was coming next. And you didn't even order. It was one of those places where you don't even get a menu."

"Omakase." Lloyd supplied helpfully despite his initial frustration.

"Is that the name of the place?"

"No, that just means he brings it to you…"

"That is!"

"That's the name of the place."

"...and you don't choose, he chooses."

"That's the place."

"Omakase."

"Yeah, I'm not a big fan of the uni roll." Aeria muttered, but Garmadon heard her and told them,

"Right?! They say you have to develop a _refined palette_ to eat that stuff but it's just gross." Garmadon turned up his nose and pinched his hand up in a snobbish manner as he said that sentence.

"_Aaaanyways_," Lloyd rolled his eyes to look over to Aeria as she lifted her hands and shoulders in a shrugging motion before asking, "just to clarify, nothing, _nothing_ else, if you really racked your brain, there's _no_ other connection?"

"Yes. There was a boy that I had in my life."

"W-what happened to your child?"

"He was bald, had no teeth, couldn't chew, always crying, couldn't walk. Couldn't even walk. I mean, I was like, 'What are we gonna do with this kid?' I'll tell you now that I would've traded him for another kid, maybe your little purple friend here since she seems to get along just fine on her own without _friends_."

"What?!" Aeria shouted in disbelief before looking over to Lloyd as his anger started to boil over to where he yelled and pressed a red button on his console engaging Mega Missile Mode,

**Mega missile mode. **

**Right claw missile.**

**Left claw missile.**

**Feet bombs.**

**Tongue rocket. **

**Spine missile one, two, three, four.**

**Tail rocket, one, two...**

**Eye missile.**

**Other eye missile.**

**Toenail missile. **

**Wrist Rocket.**

**Head missile.**

**Other head missile.**

**Backup head missile.**

**Metacarpal missile.**

**Butt torpedoes.**

The explosion on Garmadon's shark mech made his henchmen's mechs fly back as well, signaling for the other ninja to come over to their leader and team member.

"_Really_? I can't stun a few henchmen and you get to blow up your own _dad_?" Aeria questioned Lloyd with another half-lidded stare. Until they turned back to see that Garmadon was alive and well with a bubble having shielded him from the blasts.

"Jeez, where did that come from? I did not see that coming." Garmadon made his mech rise out of the pit the missile strikes made before coughing and waving some smoke away,

"Your missiles are very accurate, Green Ninja. Too bad for you, I upgraded all of my shields! That's all I seem to have at the moment, just some upgraded shields." Garmadon muttered the last sentence a bit dejectedly while fiddling with a broken lever on his consoles.

"Face it, Garmadon. You will _never_ take over Ninjago, so why don't you just _give up_ and go away _for good_?" Lloyd declared out loud.

"Well, anything's open for discussion. Oh, yeah, except that. Shields down!" Garmadon turns off his shield long enough to chuck a mini cherry bomb out before reengaging the shield, "Here, catch! Shields up!"

"No!" Lloyd fumbled with the bomb in midair before it fell to his mech.

"Did you see that?!" Garmadon cackled in mockery, his henchmen following suit, before he asked,

"I mean, who taught you how to catch, man?"

"Nice catch, loser!"

"Oh, yeah? Well, take this!" Lloyd picked up the bomb and tried to throw it forward, but it somehow got thrown backward, falling down the tail of his mech to the ground.

"That's amazing! Who taught you how to throw?"

"It's funny you ask. Um, _no one_, because I, uh… I never had a dad to play catch with me." Lloyd responded pointedly.

"HAHA Well, it shows. 'Cause that was the worst thing I've ever seen in my life."

"Or, uh, you know, teach me how to ride a bike, or shave… Maybe tell a girl I like how I really feel about her…-"

*KABOOM*

"Or how to defuse a bomb!"

"You know what's funny? Is I know how to do all those things."

"Do you?"

"Yeah."

"Oh, good to know."

"And they're just sitting there, idle in my brain. Just wasted. Floating away. Never taught them to anybody."

"Mm-hmm."

"And they'll probably die with me."

"Really?"

"When I die, if I die."

"Just _leave_ Ninjago already…" Lloyd finally lost his patience and yelled to his father in anger.

"Which will never happen."

"..._please_!"

"I will never die."

"And_ get out of my life_!"

"I… Get out of your life? Garmadon paused before scoffing and asking,

"Weirdly kinda personal, isn't it?"

"Uh-oh." Jay commented from his mech in the sky.

"Oh, man." Kai put a hand to his forehead, not wanting to see what happened next.

"Um… N-no." Lloyd managed to stammer out.

"You've got a lot of issues, Green Ninja. I hope you get the chance to work 'em all out by the time I'm back." Garmadon's henchmen lifted his shark mech out of the hole and flew him away as he called out behind him to the ninja, "And when I return, I'll have something really wicked in store for you. Something big!"

"Uh, did he just say he's coming back?" One man asked as he popped his head out from the rubble.

"Can't those Ninjas get rid of him for good?" Another person commented.

"Oh, great. Now I have to rebuild my Pilates studio."

"That stinks."

"I don't know how, but I bet Lloyd Garmadon has something to do with this."

"You can sure say that again."

"I don't know how…"

The ninja finally got the cue to leave and they all drove their mechs towards the recycling center, but Aeria stayed back a little bit to watch Garmadon leave to his volcano lair, trying to figure out what his plan would be when a voice called up to her,

"Hey, shouldn't you be gone already, _Purple Ninja_?" The police officer asked, making Aeria glare her signature glare before stunning him and saying as she flew her mech away,

_"Violet!"_


	6. Post Battle Talks

Aeria's POV

"Lloyd…" Kai spoke over the comms as we all drove or flew our mechs into the hideout and parked them in their corners of the building.

"Yeah?"

"That's your dad. You were open, man." Kai told him as he made his mech sit down in a giant recliner chair before jumping out to the ground.

"It was highly poignant." Zane stated as he and Xia parked the Ice Tank in their corner.

"For me, it's easy to fight him 'cause he's, like, not my father. But for you, that must be so complicated." Jay added on as he flew his mech in and parked it near the ceiling.

"Nooot that complicated."

"You also really pulled at my heartstrings, man." Nya added as she parked her mech on the ceiling next go mine as the ceiling closed and she leaped down to the ground before continuing with, "I felt for you."

"With... With the missiles."

"No. With the other… The other stuff."

"The dad stuff."

"Yeah, but, like, exactly what are you referring to?"

"Watching you and your father." Zane states from next go Cole at the jukebox.

"The vulnerability."

"You got so emotional." Jay announced from his spot at an arcade game.

"Em-emotions were the last thing that was going on out there." Lloyd stuttered out, making everyone sigh doubtfully.

"Um, yeah."

"Mm-hmm."

"It's okay, Lloyd. Nobody's parents are perfect." Nya tried to assure him

"I mean, my mom is weird and collects seashells." Jay started as he nervously messed with his hood in one hand, "Your dad levels cities and attacks innocent people. So, they've all got their quirks, you know?"

"Who cares what strangers have to say about you when your friends think you're awesome just the way you are?" I made the point as I parked my dragonfly on the ceiling and flipped down to the floor, brushing my hair from my face after I landed.

"I know it's just, sometimes everything they say when I'm not the Green Ninja wears me down…you wouldn't understand...''

"Oh yeah, me the 'poor little orphan girl' who 'always needs her Mommy and Daddy to fend off the big bad bullies' and can't even help her big brother take care of themselves." I made a show by waving my hands in the air.

"No t-that's not what I meant." Lloyd was quick to defend himself, but I just smiled ruefully and told him,

"But I don't care about what they say because I know it's not true all that matters to me is what my true friends think of me."

"Yeah, but I'm not tough like you-"

"Who says you have to be...?"

Lloyd was thinking about that when tranquil music started to play, making everyone look around in surprise.

"Uh, where's that tranquil music coming from?" Cole questioned out loud.

"Hey, look, everyone!" Nya pointed to the Destiny's Bounty, their flying ship, landing in the docks right outside the center, "Master Wu is back."

"Hello, students." The elderly man suddenly popped up from behind them, surprising them all but they grinned and chorused together happily,

"Master Wu!"

"Shock."

"Alarm."

"How was your trip?"

"It was a deep spiritual journey that took me to depths inside myself I never knew existed." Wu answered sagely as he walked around them with his staff clacking against the ground every few seconds.

"Yeah, you have a pretty serious tan line." Cole smirked knowingly at his master.

"Don't judge me." Wu waved his staff in their faces scolding Cole in particular.

"So, did you see us kick Garmadon's butt?" Nya asked, emphasizing with a kick to midair.

"We vanquished him." Zane and Xia chorused.

"Ba-ba bam!" Kai punched the air while going into a split before jumping back up.

"I saw you fight and I saw Garmadon retreat. But you did not defeat him." Wu notified them making them all 'what' as one before he tapped his staff to the ground twice.

"There's nothing ninja about you ninjas."

"We're so ninja. I don't know what you're talking about." Jay quietly protested.

"You will never truly defeat Garmadon until you see things from a different point of view." Wu started to walk around the room to each of us, planting his staff into the ground as he did so, "You have the power to win the battle without fighting. When you start using your mind, you won't need mechs and machines. Your call signs are not just cool names. They are the elemental powers you were all born with." Wu stood in front of Nya before making some hand motions that formed a sphere of water in front of him, making her gasp in wonder, "Nya, you can create water on your own."

"And Kai, fire!" Wu created a single fireball in one hand that was held in front of Kai's face as he marveled at it.

"Wow!"

"Jay, lightning." Wu spread his arms out as crackles of lighting formed between his hands.

"So ninja."

"Cole, earth." Wu jumped up and hit the ground, making a shockwave that knocked all of us but him off our feet.

"Whoa!"

"We both spin." Cole commented lazily as he held up a spinning record on his hand.

"Aeria, wind." Wu waved his hands around to where a mini-tornado formed around us before dying out.

"I'm like an impressive hair dryer..."

"Zane and Xia, ice." Wu coated his hand in a light blue frost.

"Ice is nice."

"And cool."

"These elemental powers are why I chose you to form the Secret Ninja Force. It is the highest level that you can achieve as a ninja. I wrote a book about it. It's called Ninjanuity. Copyright, Master Wu." Wu held up said book as he told us.

"And w-w-what about me? What am I?" Lloyd went up to him bouncing in place in excitement.

"Lloyd, yours is the most important element of all." Wu started slowly.

"Okay. Hit me with it."

"Your elemental power is... greeeen." Wu made a weird face as he said 'green'.

"What's that?"

"Greeeen."

"Okay, so, uh, just to recap. Fire. Ice. Water. Earth. Lightning. Wind. And…" Lloyd asked motioning to each of us when he said our element.

"Greeeen."

"Don't think it's an element though."

"Lloyd…"

"Can I be gold?"

"No."

"Nature isn't taken. Can I be nature?"

"No."

"Earth, green, and fire. Rolls right off the tongue."

"Lloyd…"

"Can I be the element of surprise?" Lloyd asked making jazz hands at the end.

"No. That's the Fuchsia Ninja."

"Surprise." A guy dressed in fuschia waved his hands around before disappearing.

"Was no one else bothered by that?" I asked a little unnerved, but everyone just half shrugged as Lloyd and Wu talked some more,

"There are so many elements left. This feels kinda purposeful that I don't have one."

"Enough, Lloyd. Come with me for mentor talk. The rest of you, practice Spinjitzu."

"That's easy. Watch this." Kai told him as we all practice the spinning and arm waving motions.

"Exertion."

"For three hours." Wu commanded.

"Three hours! Are you kidding me with this guy!" Jay asked tiredly.

"And read my book!" He tossed the book to the middle of everyone.

"Oh, man!" Nya moaned out.

"Oh hey, Aeria, I um…" Lloyd started to tell me, but stuttered off until Wu told me,

"Aeria, go practice under the cherry blossom tree."

"Uhmm OK?" I questioned before walking out of the center.

"Why did you send her there?" I heard Lloyd question Wu as they walked to the pier where the Bounty was parked.

"So it would be easier for you two to walk back to your house per your mother's request." Wu responded as if it was supposed to be obvious.

"Is that was Lloyd was about to tell me?" I asked myself as I made it to the tree.

Shrugging, I started practicing under the tree, the falling petals giving me a sense of tranquility until the memories of the crash started to come back in full detail, throwing my focus off until I stopped, gasping as the impact came back in vivid detail.

"What's taking them so long?" I wondered before I walked back over to the pier and stayed out of sight as she heard that Wu and Lloyd were still talking, catching on a bit of their conversation,

"I need you to lead the Secret Ninja Force. But you must promise to walk a different path. One that only the son of Garmadon can walk. No matter how hard it may be." Wu was telling Lloyd sagely until there was a silence and Lloyd quietly responded with,

"Honestly, I would happily give up being a Secret Ninja if it meant I didn't have to be the son of Garmadon."

"Oh Lloyd…but where would we all be if that happened?" I whispered to myself.

"I know you've had a hard life, Lloyd, filled with many knocks. Why don't I play you a song? Perhaps it will speak to you." Wu started to play his flute to the tune of 'Hard Knock Life' until it stopped abruptly followed by,

"Thanks, Uncle Wu."

"Oh and could you please tell Aeria that it's rude to eavesdrop on other people's conversations."

"Heh busted…" Lloyd stood over me from the Bounty as I smirked and told him,

"Ha ha greenie, let's go." I lightly bumped his shoulder with mine as we both flipped our hoods up.

"You ready?" He got into a starting run position.

"You know it." I did the same before we counted to three and took off, each of us parkouring our way to his house, competing to see who would get there first with the most impressive moves.

3rd Person POV

Aeria and Lloyd had gotten to his house where he slipped off his sneakers and put on his sandals before turning to Aeria and saying,

"Just wait out here a second."

"Sure thing." She told him with a rueful smile as he opened the door to find his mom on the phone.

"Lloyd!"

"Hey, Mom."

"No. I've got him right here. He just walked in. Bye-bye." She hung up the phone before going over to her son, "Oh, my gosh. I was so worried about you."

"Uh, I'm fine. I just took the long way home."

"Why did we get on a family plan if you're not gonna text me?" Koko asked in near hysterics.

"I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to worry you. I love you and I'm sorry." Lloyd pulled his mom into a hug as she told him,

"I don't know what I'd do if anything ever happened to you, okay?"

"Thanks, Mom..."

"I'm just really glad that those ninjas saved the day." She commented while looking into the fridge.

"Yeah. Yeah, I was there." He muttered quietly as he shook food into the fishbowl in the kitchen.

"What?"

"Watching with the other regular kids."

"Okay. Well, you must be starving."

"I don't know, I'm not really that hungry."

"But I'll make your favorite. Dumplings!"

"Oh! Enticing, but I'm just gonna… I'm just gonna go to bed, I think. *Yawn* Just really tired." Lloyd yawned while stretching his arms up and heading up to his room for the night.

"Oh."

"Good night, Mom."

"Okay, well, good night." Koko was about to surprise him with a cake, but missed him as he already made it upstairs.

"Oh and Aeria's right outside."

"What? Why didn't you invite her in?" Koko put the cake down and rushed to open the door to let Aeria in, as she pulled her hood down.

"Hi Mrs. Garmadon."

"Oh you can just call me Koko, no more of that Mrs. or Ma'am stuff."

"Ok?" Aeria walked over and sat down at the table as Koko poured her a cup of green tea, "So Lloyd told me that you wanted to see me?"

"Yes, I did," Koko sat down across from her, "How're you and your brother doing?"

"We've... been managing pretty well."

"Really?"

"Yeah, I mean it's been kind of hard, but my brother's taking care of us as best he can."

"Oh well that's good…"

There was a short moment of silence before Aeria asked,

"Is there something you needed or…?"

"Well, today I wanted to give you something that your mother would've wanted you to have, just wait here a second." Koko left and went into the hall and the sounds of her rummaging through boxes was heard as Aeria looked around at all the pictures of Koko and Lloyd that were around the apartment.

Smiling at how happy they looked together reminding her of her own family before the accident, Koko returned with a small box that was covered with dust until she blew it off and set it on the table in front of Aeria.

"Go ahead, open it."

Cautiously, Aeria pulled the top off the box and inside, wrapped in a swatch of faded fabric was a beautiful purple-jeweled hair clip in the shape of a dragonfly.

"Woah…" Aeria pulled the clip out and marveled at it.

"Your mother made that when we were just about your age…"

"She made this?"

"Yep, the same day she met your father heh they were instantly drawn to each other and she told me to hold onto this for her." Koko pulled out a picture that had been at the very bottom of the box and held it out to Aeria to look at.

In the picture, was Aeria's parent's silhouettes against a rising moon on a hilltop next to a cherry blossom tree.

"My husband and I were there for their wedding."

"Wait, Garmadon was at a wedding?" Aeria asked, both with doubt and trying to hold back laughter.

"Yep, believe it or not, I managed to drag him there." Koko laughed as she pulled out a different photo of herself, her husband, frowning from being forced into a four-armed tuxedo, and her parents next to them smiling.

"Wow… I didn't know they made four-armed tuxes."

"Oh it was very hard." They both laughed until Aeria used her jacket sleeve to wipe her eyes.

"They looked so happy…" She commented wistfully touching her parent's faces in the photo, "I really wish they were here right now…" Aeria took the clip in her hand and used it to pin up her bangs out of her face.

"I do too, but as long as you keep them in your thoughts, they will never truly be gone." Koko went over and pulled Aeria into a hug that she slowly returned with a silent 'thank you'.

Pulling apart, Aeria wiped her eyes against before composing herself and telling Koko,

"I have to go now, my brother will be home soon and he worries if I'm not there when he gets back."

"Oh of course, do you need me to walk with you?"

"No no it's ok you've done plenty for me and him already." Aeria smiled as she put the wedding photo in her jacket's inner pocket and picked her backpack up from the floor outside the door before waving,

"Goodnight Koko." And beginning the walk, or rather parkour, home.

"Take care of yourselves…" Koko whispered as she closed the door and looked up at the stairs to see a flash of green bolt back upstairs, smirking at her son's obvious feelings for his "friend".

A few minutes later...

"Phew…" Aeria plopped down on her bed with her hands over her face, processing all that was just told to her.

"Ari? I'm home." She heard her brother announce as the door was closed behind him.

"Hey." Aeria came out from her room to greet her brother with a hug at the door.

When she released him from the hug, she saw that there were two white bags in his hand with some kind of restaurant logo of a man holding a bowl of noodles with a smiling wink.

"I take it the interview went well?" Aeria asked gesturing to the bag of good-smelling food.

"Yep, I've just been hired as the new fry cook at Chen's Noodle House."

"That's awesome!" Aeria hugged the life out of her brother in pride.

"Luckily an old friend knew the owner and convinced her to give me a chance. And we get to take home whatever's leftover from the day." Motor plopped the bags onto the table while Aeria took out the photos and placed them on the table. Morro stopped opening his chopsticks long enough to look at it and pick it up slowly.

"W-where did you get this…?"

"I went to go see Koko since Lloyd told me she wanted to talk to me about… our parents."

"Heh…" Morro touched the photo just like she had before pausing to see that Koko and Garmadon were there too, "How did they make Garmadon a four-armed tux?"

"I have no idea." They both laughed quietly as if he could've heard them then and there and Morro took notice of the hair clip holding back his sister's bangs.

"Is that...?"

"A hair clip Mom made, apparently she wanted Koko to hold onto it." She took it off to show her brother before clipping it back in.

"I know it's been hard without them…" Morro started as they stood up and he took the picture over to a little altar they made for their parents with cherry blossom branches in a small vase and a little candle in front of a family picture of the four of them before Aeria continued with,

"But we're still here and that's all that really matters in order to keep their memory alive." Aeria went to hug her brother as he embraced her as well as they looked at the photos on thee mini altar lovingly.

"Alright enough with all the sappy talk, let's eat!" Aeria joked as they went back to the table, picked up their chopsticks, and they both ate.

Unbeknownst to them both, the candle in front of the photo of their parent's silhouettes against the moonlight brightened a bit before returning to normal.


	7. Ultimate Weapons and Ultimate Demises

Aeria's POV

Trudging through another day of physics lessons, I was starting to fall asleep with my head in one hand until several large *Booms* were heard outside.

"May I have a bathroom pass?!" I waved my hand in the air, but my teacher was too terrified to answer so I just let myself out.

"What took _you_ so long?" Lloyd asked as he was already at the lockers behind the rest of the gang.

"No time for jokes, let's go!" I went down my locker's pipeline rapidly changing into my uniform, taking extra care that I didn't lose my hair clip before clipping it back into place underneath my mask.

Within a few minutes, everyone was ready to go announcing as our mechs flew, swam, and rolled out,

"Ninja, go!"

"Jay." Lloyd started to direct the team,

"Yeah?"

"You take the air. Kai, Zane, Xia, and Cole, downtown."

"Nya, water."

"You got it." Nya confirmed her position from where she was skating across the river.

"I'm going after Garmadon."

"Why don't I take your dad this time?" Jay suggested from his glider.

"Or at the very least, let me come with you again to make sure you don't do anything dumb." I told Lloyd with a bit of a glare towards the end of the sentence.

"I got this. I'm totes profesh." Lloyd told us, but everyone could clearly hear the uncertainty in his voice.

"Wait. What does that mean?" Kai questioned in confusion.

"I think he's trying to say he's a total professional." Nya guessed.

"Then why is he totes abbrevin'?" Jay asked using the same tone as Lloyd.

"I'm pretty sure Lloyd's nervous." Zane started before Xia finished her twin's explanation with,

"About facing his father after the emotional debate that occurred yesterday."

"What? T-That's crazy talk." Lloyd stuttered in his response making Zane and Xia chorus,

"Incorrect."

"Hey, I got this!" Lloyd drove his mech away right before Nya suggested to me,

"Maybe you should follow him and make sure he doesn't do anything too reckless."

"I'm on it." I saluted Nya before driving my dragonfly mech after Lloyd where he was driving straight for his father in a new, more advanced looking humanoid shark mech. I was falling behind because of some flying henchmen when Lloyd tried to order his father

"Stand down, Garmadon."

"Well, hello, Green Ninja! and I see you back there Purple Ninja..."

"Violet!" I yelled back making Lloyd see me behind him,

"What are you doing, I told you guys I can handle this, watch," Lloyd tried to protest to me before turning forward and saying, "It's time for you to ninja go away for good. Take this!"

**Mega missile mode.**

**Left claw missile.**

**Toenail missile.**

**Wrist Rocket.**

**Feet bombs.**

**Spine missile one,**

**two, three, four.**

**Tail rocket one, two.**

**Eye missile.**

**Other eye missile.**

**Tongue rocket.**

**Head missile.**

**Other head missile.**

**Backup head missile.**

**Butt torpedoes.**

However, all the missiles Lloyd fired didn't even scratch the paint job on Garmadon's new mech.

"Your weapons are powerless against my new mech."

"What?"

"Seriously Green Ninja just wait until I get there and we'll figure something out, if I could just get these guys _off my back_!" I yelled the last part as I opened the window to fight off the henchmen who were on my mech and to shoot down their flying mech with three well-fired arrows as they were preventing me from reaching Lloyd and Garmadon.

"No time for that," Lloyd dismissed my suggestion before turning back to his father and yelling, "take this!"

**Releasing full payload.**

"Here it comes!" Lloyd was stopped in his tracks when I saw in the distance that Garmadon had grabbed Lloyd's next by its throat to stop its attack.

**Alert! Alert! Alert!**

"You having trouble with that dragon mech, Green Ninja?" I could see Lloyd struggling to get his mech back under control when Garmadon yelled,

"Bye-bye." Right before he tossed the dragon mech aside like it was nothing.

"Wait. No!"

"No!" I shouted before I suddenly felt my protective instincts kick into overdrive mode.

"You're gonna pay for that Garmadon!" I seethed out as I flew my mech over the buildings to see him and his mech "walking" up the side of city hall.

"Look at me go!" He called out in joy before I fired a stun laser at him that barely missed his head.

"Well well well, if it isn't the _Purple Ninja_." I was already burning with anger, but that was what sent me over,

"It's Violet!" I hit the accelerator on my mech to ram his off the building, but right before impact, his mech caught mine in a single hand that kept me pinned in place as I struggled to take back control.

"Nobody stops me or else your little buddy is a goner!" Garmadon announced to the others as he made his mech hold me up in a crushing grip while continuing up the building slowly, stopping every few floors to fire some sharks at people.

"Violet, what's going on?!" I heard Nya speaking through the slightly busted comms.

"Guys I need an escape route from my mech like _right now_."

"If you press the button on your left, it will activate an emergency escape ejection." Xia explained as a red Eject button popped up from the left armrest. I was just about to hit it when Garmadon interrupted my plan with,

"You're not getting away that easily." Before he made his mech tighten its grip on mine, keeping me pinned in place as the walls bent toward me, destroying the panel in front of me cutting off the communications the others were sending through to me.

_Thank Ninjago Zane and Xia had our mechs reinforced or I'd be a goner by now… _I thought as I looked out of the window to see where everyone was.

_Where are you, Lloyd...?_

"Hey, Ninjago!" My thoughts were interrupted when Garmadon reached the top of the building and used his mech's free hand to plant a flag with his emblem on it before jumping up and down in triumph and firing sharks up into the air, "Whoo! I've done it! I'm finally the ruler of Ninjago! Forever! And ever!"

"Stand down, Garmadon!" A new voice called out and I looked out to see Lloyd rising up on his mech from the building with some kind of weapon in hand.

"Green Ninja? And the legendary Ultimate Weapon? Ugh, it's not fair."

"'Ultimate Weapon'? Seriously, what kind of name is that?" I snarked from my entrapped position.

"_Don't_ disrespect the Ultimate Weapon, it could destroy us all if it wanted to." Garmadon lectured with slight fear in his voice making my eyes widen.

"And _you're_ using it Green Ninja, of all the dumb things you've been doing lately this _has_ to be the _stupidest_."

"Uh 'thank you Green Ninja for coming to my rescue'? No? Fine…" I smirked ruefully at Lloyd's ego while he was in Ninja form before he went on with his threat to his father,

"I'm sick and tired of you trying to conquer Ninjago!

"All right, Green Ninja. Now, listen. Just calm down. You don't have to use that thing." Garmadon seemed genuinely afraid of the strange weapon in Lloyd's possession.

"So you're gonna leave Ninjago?

"Yeah..."

"Forever?"

"I promise." Garmadon held two arms up but kept another hidden behind his back.

"Why is your hand behind your back? What are you doing back there? Are you crossing your fingers?"

"That's physically impossible. How could I be crossing my fingers? I have these things." Garmadon held up his claw hands while I muttered,

"Wouldn't be surprised if you found a way to, honestly."

"You keep quiet!" His threat was punctuated by another crushing motion around my mech, making a panel from the console pop out and press against my leg painfully.

"I'm warning you, Garmadon!"

"Fine! No crossies! No crossies! Just chill. Okay. Look, I'm getting rid of all my sharks." All his sharks were flushed out from the pack behind his mech, "See? No sharks."

"And the sharks in your ankle holster."

"I don't have any sharks."

"What's in your ankle?"

"It's a couple of dolphins, man. Now you're acting loco. I mean…"

"Hey! Get rid of 'em."

"Fine." The mech's leg was kicked down a few times to shake all the dolphins out, "You happy now?"

"I'm done. You win." The mech walked forward a few steps while its grip tightened ever so slightly with each step.

"What are you doing? What are you doing right now?" I could see Lloyd's stance falter as his father got closer in his giant mech.

"Easy, Green Ninja."

"Don't come any closer!"

"Easy."

"I'm warning you, Garmadon."

"Let's just keep this interaction very chill."

"I'm the _definition_ of chill right now!"

"Quit losing your cool!" I interrupted the back and forth banter which earned another crushing motion that brought the panel down on my leg even more to where I had to bite back a pained shout.

"Stand back!"

"Put down the Ultimate Weapon, Green Ninja. We both know you're not gonna fire it. Especially not when I have your little friend right in the palm of my hand."

"Oh, yeah? This is your last chance. Let my friend go and get out of Ninjago, now and _forever_!"

"No." Garmadon stated plainly, making Lloyd up his threat,

"Alright, fine. You ready for this?"

"Yeah."

"It's coming."

"Okay."

"You've been warned."

"I'm waiting."

"Here it comes."

"Any time."

"All right, here it comes!" He pressed the huge button on the side of the weapon which activated a red dot that landed on Garmadon's mech, making him panic wildly,

"Oh, my gosh! He actually shot and it exploded, and then…" He finally realized nothing bad was happening and his panicking faltered, making me facepalm silently in disbelief, "But nothing is happening. Why is nothing happening?"

"What the heck?" Lloyd looked to the weapon in confusion and worry.

"It's like the Ultimate Lamest Weapon."

"Come on! Why won't you work?" He flipped it around to hit it repeatedly while failing to notice that the red dot was now shining down on the city.

***Thump***

"You hear that?" Garmadon questioned before more was heard,

***Thump***

"What have you done?"

***Thump***

***Thump***

***Thump***

From behind a building, a giant kitty was revealed making the crowd go,

"Aw!"

Right before a single strike from its paw completely knocked over and destroyed a skyscraper with a fierce snarl, making everyone down below panic and run.

"How do I turn this thing off?" Lloyd frantically pushed the button while simultaneously waving the weapon around as the dot did the same in the city below and the cat followed it everywhere it shone,

"Come on!"

"Stop you're only making it worse!" I tried to bang on the windows of my mech to get Lloyd's attention, but I was interrupted when Garmadon commanded his henchmen,

"Generals, grab the Green Ninja." Right as Lloyd was being overrun with the henchmen as they tried to get the weapon from him,

"Keep away."

Lloyd was almost pushed over the edge of the building before he managed to regain his footing, only to be dogpiled on after Garmadon kicked the weapon out of his grip.

"Whoa. Whoa."

"Wait! Wait! No, no, no!" Lloyd struggled against the henchmen restraining his arms as Garmadon made his way back up to the opening of his mech and telling him,

"Remember, Green Ninja, I didn't fire this thing first. That's on you. But, since you got it all warmed up, let's try it on some moving targets."

"No!" Lloyd and I yelled out as he used the light to take out Kai's mech first, the cat breaking it down in one swift jump. Cole was next as the light blinded him right before the cat pounced on his mech as he shouted,

"What the heck!"

"Stop it, Garmadon! Just stop it!" Lloyd pleaded as he continued to struggle against his captors while his father just laughed wickedly as he targeted Nya next, the cat batting her mech around as she screamed,

"What is this thing?!"

Catching his mech out of midair, the cat took down Jay's mech right before he ejected out of his seat and cried out,

"I'm gonna throw up!"

Zane and Xia were attacked next as the light blinded Zane and they both chorused,

"Prolonged scream."

The last of the rampage coming to a close as the Ice Tank was the last one to be taken down aside from the dragon and dragonfly mechs.

"Five ninja down, two to go," Garmadon lowly stated, making his mech kick Lloyd's mech off the building before adding, "Soon to be one."

Right before he completely crushed my mech in his mech's hand, my leg fully crushed against the crushed console making me cry out before me and my mech were tossed through the air off the building,

"Noooo!" I heard Lloyd scream before I got too far from them in my airborne mech.

Flying through the air toward the ground, I felt the shock that I hadn't felt since the accident and I started to hyperventilate right before my mech crashed to the ground and I was forcibly knocked out.


	8. Broken Friendships?

3rd Person POV

"I'm not gonna cry..." Lloyd slightly growled after witnessing the destruction of all his friends' mechs before ripping off his hood and adding pointedly,

"Dad."

A turntable disk dramatically scratching in the background before another continued and it finally stopped before Garmadon asked,

"La-Loyd?"

"That's right!" Lloyd stood up and threw down his hood in anger, "It's me! Your son! And it's Lloyd, Dad."

"No. L-L-O-Y-D. I named you."

"You ruined my life!"

"How could I ruin your life? I wasn't even there."

In a moment of insulted anger, Lloyd front kicks the Ultimate Weapon out of his father's grasp, sending it down to the street where it cracked apart, before running to the edge of the building and turning back to tell him,

"I wish you weren't my father."

And jumping off the building, catching a banner to use as a parachute, and leaving his father to ponder his words.

Running through the city after a harsh landing and wiping tears off his face with his sleeve, Lloyd passed the wrecks of Nya and Cole's mechs, Nya's was sparking up while Cole's mech's turntables were stuck in a loop as he ran past them. He was running toward the Ninja Headquarters when he saw a smoke trail through the air and he gasped when he saw the purple dragonfly mech in the distance.

"Ari…" Lloyd ran to the wreckage and pushed aside some rubble from the glass dome of the mech to see Aeria still passed out inside with her leg still trapped underneath the crushed console.

Sighing in relief that she wasn't dead, he lifted the dome off as it was already breaking apart and lifted the console wreck off her leg before pulling her out, pulling her hood off, and laying her on the ground.

"C'mon Ari, wake up…" Almost right on cue, Aeria gasped a bit before scrunching up her face in pain as she tried to get up.

"Woah hey easy easy, your leg's not looking too good." Lloyd tried to get Aeria to stop moving but she didn't listen to him and continued to stand up on one leg with the other dragging a bit and one arm on the other.

"You OK?" Lloyd asked and Aeria responded before trailing off,

"I haven't been that scared since…"

"Oh… yeah…" Lloyd went over to her and carefully pulled her into a hug that she tensed at first and slowly warmed to it after a few seconds.

"I'm so sorry I tried to use the Ultimate Weapon, I-I didn't know that all of this would happen if I used it." Lloyd gestured all around them to the rubble piles and destroyed buildings in their surroundings.

"While I am a tiny bit annoyed that you keep trying to destroy your father with firepower that ends up blowing up in your face, this time more than others, I understand that, deep down, you wanted to protect Ninjago… by driving him away which maaaybe isn't the best option."

"Thanks?"

"Not sure the others would see it that way though."

"Oh my gosh, the others!" Lloyd remembered where he had been heading and started to run toward the recycling center with Aeria behind him, albeit a bit slower due to her barely noticeable limp.

A few minutes of running later, they made it to the center and saw that the building had been completely demolished along with the Bounty, and floating on the water was Master Wu's hat.

"Oh, no. No, no. Please. Please, no. Uncle Wu…"

From behind, they heard the clatter of building materials and turned to see the rest of the gang, looking annoyed at Lloyd, but otherwise alright.

"Oh, my gosh! You guys are okay!" Lloyd exclaimed in relief.

"Barely." Nya pointedly stated.

"You used the Ultimate Weapon. Not cool." Cole added.

"Dude, our mechs are totaled." Kai griped.

"And now, that cat's destroying Ninjago." Nya pointed out.

"We were the only people that didn't hate you, and now we hate you!" Jay interjected harshly.

"Deleting all data related to treating Lloyd as a friend." Zane and Xia stated simultaneously before a small crumpled paper icon filled their eyes and made a small noise to indicate the delete.

"C'mon guys, don't you think you're all being a little too hard on him?" Aeria tried to reason with them, but Lloyd stopped her her a hand on her arm before he told them all,

"No, they're right… *sigh* guys, I'm sorry. I put everyone in danger and now Master Wu is dead."

Abruptly, Master Wu popped out from the pile of broken parts,

"Hello, students."

Making everyone who was standing there back away to gasp before shouting,

"Master Wu!"

"You're alive!" Lloyd exclaimed relieved.

"Duh! I'm a ninja master. If I was gonna die, it would be to teach you a lesson."

"Oh…"

"Lloyd, you have awakened Meowthra."

"Meowthra?" Everyone repeated in disbelief.

"Seriously?" Aeria questioned a little after everyone spoke.

"Yes, Meowthra. The six-toed fluffy demon, with her sandpaper tongue. Her reign of terror will stretch on and on until all of Ninjago is her own personal litter box."

That explanation earned a whimper from Jay before Nya patted his back in assurance and he smiled before stopping.

"There's only one hope. One thing that can drive Meowthra away." Wu continued to explain making his students ask,

"What?!"

"What is it?" Lloyd urged to know.

"The Ultimate Ultimate Weapon."

"Whoa!"

"Again, seriously?"

"Where is this thing?"

"On the other side of the island, hidden where only a true ninja master can find it. You must follow the right path. Otherwise you will end up trapped in the deadly Jungle of Lost Souls, unable to cross the Bridge of Fallen Mentors, and mired in the Canyon of General Unhappiness. And if you're still alive, you'll be crushed by the Temple of Fragile Foundations."

Everyone could be sworn they heard a scream as Wu explained the obstacles before he proceeded with,

"It's a journey many have tried and none have returned."

"That does sound difficult." Lloyd admitted.

"And terrifying." Jay cowered behind Nya as she playfully rolled her eyes at her boyfriend's antics.

"But you know what? We're ready." Lloyd declared and the others straightened up at that.

"No, you're not. It will take great patience, courage, and hard work. All the skills of a true ninja master. So, I will make this journey on my own. Bye." Wu gave a small wave before hopping down from the pile to begin the journey.

"Wait, wait, wait!" Kai urged as he and the others followed behind their master.

"Master Wu, wait!" Lloyd begged.

"Hold on a second, please." Nya added.

"Master Wu, I know I let Ninjago down." Lloyd confessed with shame

"It's true, Lloyd let Ninjago down. *Sorry, dude!* We want to fix his terrible mistake." Jay started, whispering back to Lloyd before the others chimed in their pleas.

"Train us to be true ninjas."

"We have the potential."

"Come on!"

"Wait! We'll do anything."

"Please, Master Wu, you can't do this alone." Lloyd continued to plead making his mentor gradually slow down to hear his case, "I know we're not ninja masters yet, but you said it yourself. It's important to look at things differently. Is there anything I can do to change your point of view?"

Wu finally stopped walking to stroke his beard in thought,

"Hmm. Students, are you willing to give Lloyd a second chance?"

"I am." Aeria stepped forward to place a hand on Lloyd's shoulder before standing beside him and looking to the others with a pleading look.

"Uh…"

"Too soon, sorry Ari."

"No."

"Pass."

"Just processing, so…"

"Mm-mm, mm-mm."

Everyone voiced their hesitations, making Lloyd look down before looking beside him and faintly smiling at the one who was willing to give him a second chance right off the bat without hesitation.

"Lloyd, you have a long way to go to regain the rest of your friends' trust." Wu told his nephew and he nodded his head in understanding, "Luckily, there's a long journey ahead of us."

"Thank you, Master Wu. Thank you."

"The fate of Ninjago is in your hands. Are you ready?" Wu directed to the rest of the team and they voiced their enthusiasm over each other,

"Yes, I am on it!"

"Oh, yeah!"

"Let's do it!"

"Yep!"

"Maybe."

"Let's go!" Wu announced and they all began the journey together.


	9. Welcome to the Jungle of Lost Souls

3rd Person POV with Aeria

After too-many-hours-for-me-to-care-to-mention of leaping across dangerously balanced pillars of stone, trekking through the spider-infested jungle, and rocky cliffs, all while Master Wu was playing his upbeat music on his staff flute, we all finally collapsed as he finished up his perky little piece.

"Dope fluting, Master Wu." Cole complemented before slumping back down to the grassy ground.

"Thank you." He responded simply before we continued forward at a slower pace this time.

"I wonder how everyone's doing back home?" Jay questioned tiredly.

"I too ponder the status of our families' conditions." Xia added in concurrence.

"Yeah, I wonder if Morro managed to get out of Ninjago…"

"Whaddaya mean Ari?" Kai questioned as he wiped his sweaty forehead off and wiped it on a disgusted Jay's sleeve.

"He always said if something like Garmadon finally taking over Ninjago happened, we'd meet up at a safe house that's supposedly at the edge of the city." Aeria stopped to stretch her aching knee out before continuing worriedly, "If he's already there, he's probably wondering where I am right about now, having no idea I'm with my ninja team and master trekking to a weapon that can defeat a giant cat of all things!" Aeria started sounding more and more impatient with every word she said until Wu placed his staff in front of her to stop her in her tracks.

"Then, perhaps you should have told him about this team, you know he was my student once as well."

"Wait?!" The others were surprised by this new piece of information, but Aeria wasn't.

"Exactly, you know how he would get if he found out I'm fighting Garmadon every other day, he barely lets me go to the movies without my panic button and two forms of ID."

"But is it worth it for both of you to worry about each other this much by keeping this secret from him?" Wu questioned sagely.

"I guess not…" Aeria hissed silently pausing to stretch her leg as the stabbing pain worsened, making her start to worry about it being sprained or even worse.

"Students, your elemental powers come from this lush green world. Feel the energy flowing through you." Wu started to teach his students, making flowing Spinjitzu movements and they copied his motions but slower and more precise.

"Good. Good. The power is inside you." Wu made more fluid movements before telling them, "Now say to yourself,

'I've got the power.'" And tooting out the melody on his staff flute, making Cole beatbox to the beat as everyone sang out,

"I've got the power!" Before he abruptly stopped and asked,

"What was that?"

Edging closer to the brightly colored individuals, Garmadon crawled across the earth on all six of his limbs before sampling a small piece of the dirt that had been within a footprint on the path and saying,

"Mm. Ninja tracks!"

"I sense the presence of evil." Wu announced after sniffing the air and narrowing his eyes dramatically,

"Students, true ninja knows when to fight and when to become one with the elements. Quickly, blend in the shadows."

Everyone quickly hid as best they could: Nya grabbing two pieces of bamboo and hiding behind those, Lloyd hiding upside-down behind another stalk, Kai pushing his head into the ground, Zane and Xia hiding behind some big leaves, Cole hiding behind stalk, Jay curled up on his side on the ground, and Aeria rapidly climbed up a bamboo stalk toward the top.

"You are all terrible ninja. I will take care of Garmadon on my own." Wu told them as he jumped away on multiple bamboo stalks.

"I'm close." Garmadon crawls closer to the ground.

"He's close." Wu stands his ground with his staff raised.

"Real close."

"Really close."

They don't realize they're right next to each other until Garmadon reaches over and pats Wu's face and pulls his beard resulting in a chorused,

"You!"

Before they face each other in a snarl-off that ends with them literally in each other's faces.

"Oh, hello, brother." They pull away from each other as Garmadon asks, "Where are your little ninja ninja nin-ner- Where are ya little ninja nerds? *Pft* Nailed it."

"They are surrounding you, perfectly hidden. Ready to strike." Wu gestures around them before readying his staff for combat again.

"Oh, really?"

From where they're hiding, Jay unleashes a bad imitation of a bird call.

"Students, next lesson. How to fight like a true nin-OW!" Garmadon cuts Wu off by punching him in the stomach while looking at his son as he grimaced.

While the two brothers started to fight on the ground, up at the top of the bamboo stalk, Aeria was glancing in the direction of Ninjago, wondering where her brother was.

_I'm alright… I just wish I could let you know…_ Aeria thought to herself as she felt a small breeze rustle through the tops of the stalks.

It wasn't until a bright red butterfly was sent her way, nicking her sleeve in the process did she see what was going on down below.

_Oh boy…_ Aeria slid down the stalk almost landing on top of Lloyd before she jumped off and somersaulted on the ground to soften her landing.

"There you are!" Lloyd hugged Aeria as he and the others came out of hiding.

"You were hiding up there? Oh man..." Jay winced as he looked to the top of the bamboo where they all seemed to blur at once from his fear of heights before Nya calmed him down and told Aeria urgently,

"Come on we have to help Master Wu, he's fighting Garmadon by himself!"

"They're headed toward the bridge, let's go!" Kai yelled slightly impatient as they all ran toward the fighting just as Wu and Garmadon ran at each other. Wu was pushing back using his staff when one of Garmadon's lower arms ripped off Wu's robe.

"Really? Tighty-whities? Still?" Garmadon tossed them back in his face and the team looked away in disgust as Aeria commented,

"There's an image we'll never be able to unsee."

"Face it, you're out of moves, Wu."

"Oh, yeah? How about this one?" Wu stomped down on the bridge, making it ripple under the impact before jumping up as well.

"Oh."

Wu rapidly grabbed the airborne stalks and quickly assembled a cage out of them around Garmadon.

"I call it the Caged Monkey."

"Oh, you have got to be kidding me!"

The ninja all gasped while Zane and Xia both held their hands up to their faces and whispered,

"Gasp."

"And that, my students, is how you fight like a true ninja." Wu's hat flew back to him as he smiled before Garmadon chuckled, earning Wu's attention as he replied,

"Well, a true ninja would have counted all seven butterflies."

"What? I did. One, two, three, four, five, six…" Wu's counted on his "fingers" before,

"Seven."

One of the butterflies flew close to Wu's face making him panic, start waving it away from his face, and making him fall over the edge of the rope bridge toward the river below.

"No!" Lloyd tried to run forward to save his uncle and their master, but Aeria and Kai grabbed his arms before he got too far forward. Wu fell into the river and after a few seconds, his hat came up, making the others think the worst… until Wu popped back up above the surface, clutching his hat like a lifeline.

"Master Wu!" The ninja all shouted out when they saw their master was alright.

"Lloyd, always remember…!" Wu called up to his nephew.

"Yeah?"

"Stay on the right path to find your inner peace." Wu finished right before he was swept away by the rapids, out of sight within seconds.

"No, no, no." Lloyd struggled against Kai and Aeria and, while Lloyd managed to free an arm from Kai, Aeria kept a tight grip on Lloyd's other arm, keeping from falling into the river right alongside his uncle.

"Master Wu, we need you, please! Don't leave!" Jay cried out one last time

"Uncle Wu..." Lloyd whispered.

"Did he say inner peace?" Nya questioned before Jay cut in impatiently with,

"The right path? Why is he bringing these things up so late in our adventure?"

"Well, well, well." Garmadon's voice sounded from the cage and everyone looked to him in slight alarm.


	10. Walking with Garmadon

3rd Person POV

"Looks like your precious ninja master's gone." Everyone moved to be toward the center of the bridge's walkway as Garmadon continued with,

"Now, come on, La-Loyd. Open the cage. Let out your papa."

"So, now you wanna be my dad?" Lloyd asked bitterly.

"I'm not gonna ask you again, La-Loyd. Open the cage _right now_."

"One…" Lloyd stood his ground as his father continued counting down.

"Two…"

"Three…"

"I thought that was supposed to work with kids." Garmadon mused to himself before Aeria snarked,

"It does, if we were _toddlers_."

"Listen, La-Loyd and friends whose names I don't know…"

"I'm Jay." Jay leaped up onto Cole's back to introduce himself.

"It's not a question."

"Oh." Cole pushed Jay off before Garmadon and his pitch to the team,

"Now, for you to make it through this journey alive, you're gonna need someone to teach you the ninja way."

"What do you know about being a ninja?" Lloyd questioned, full of doubt.

"Oh, I know plenty, La-Loyd. You don't get to be a warlord without knowing a thing or two about the ninja arts. The dark ninja arts." Garmadon began to shake the bars of his cage, growling and hissing like a wild animal, thoroughly creeping everyone out.

"You're a ninja?"

"Indeed, I am. As a matter of fact, I wrote the book on Ninjelligence." Garmadon somehow pulled out a copy of the book from under his cape.

"Why are there so many one-star reviews?" Jay asked as he looked up the book on his phone, no one really wondering how long he's had it with him or how it was even getting a signal out in the middle of the jungle.

"I think that's trolls, personally."

"Oh."

"We don't need your book, Garmadon. Wu is our master." Lloyd replied stubbornly.

"Well, Wu is gone. And you're gonna need me to get you out of this jungle, or you're all gonna die."

"Oh, great! We're all gonna die."

"We're not gonna die, Jay."

"And while I'm keeping you alive, maybe I'll teach you some of my sick dark ninja move like the Buzzkill." Garmadon pulled a bug out from behind his cage and killed it in a splatter.

"Wow." All the ninja except for Lloyd and Aeria wowed at his move.

"The Miso Slap."

"Wow."

"Or the Chainsaw Chop."

"Wow."

"Or the Dance of Doom."

"Wow."

"Hang on just a second. This is Garmadon we're talking about. We can still make it to the Ultimate Ultimate Weapon on our own. We just have to remember what Master Wu taught us." Lloyd tried to convince his team, but his effort fell flat when Cole retorted with,

"All I can remember is we really need a ninja master. And you are not a ninja master."

"Alright," Aeria sharply cut in with a fierce tone, "Would you guys quit givin' Lloyd such a hard time he already feels bad enough about the situation as it is."

There was a tense silence before Jay broke it with,

"So what are we gonna do?"

Making Lloyd sigh deeply before answering somewhat hesitantly,

"We take him."

"Fantastic!" Garmadon cheered before they picked up his cage and continued on their way to the Ultimate Ultimate Weapon.

_Short Walking Time Skip_

Aeria's POV

We were all trekking through the forest, the others helping to carry Garmadon in his cage along while Lloyd and I scouted a little ahead of them as he chatted with the other like nothing was wrong,

"You know what's funny? I had La-Loyd when I was 158 years old."

"Wow."

"Wait a minute."

"You're 174?"

"Yes."

"Master Wu says he's 167, and he's your younger brother?"

"He's my younger brother."

"Correct."

"How is that possible? You look much…"

"Younger." The other all chorused at once.

"Thank you."

"Yeah, do you moisturize?"

"Yes, that's when I got the upper hand on Master Wu."

"'Upper hands'."

"Yeah, upper hands."

"How did you gain two arms?" Jay blurted out.

"Oh, don't put it like that."

"I don't know if that's the best way to say it."

"Well, he's got four arms."

"Correct!"

"You know, a lot of people don't ask me about it. So, I'm glad that he's comfortable asking. Lloyd's never asked me once about my arms. Have you, Lloyd?" Garmadon directed to his son, but he just tensed up from next to me and responded pointedly,

"Don't talk to me."

As the others started their conversation about Garmadon's extra arms, I nudged Lloyd with my shoulder before telling him,

"You can't let him get to you y'know..."

"You saw how he was to me when he didn't even know it was me, he doesn't care about me and I doubt he ever did."

"Maybe that's true or maybe not, you'll never know if you don't give him the chance to explain himself, maybe he'll surprise you and actually tell the truth for once."

"Hey Lloyd did you know your dad was bitten by a snake that had been bitten by a spider and that's how he got his extra arms?" Jay exclaimed with excitement to the two of us.

"Are you guys actually buying that?" Lloyd asked in disbelief.

"How else would you explain it, La-Loyd? You weren't there."

"Of course I've been wrong before." I smiled ruefully, making Lloyd half smile as he slipped his hand in mine and whispered,

"Thanks for that, even if it doesn't actually help, it's nice to know I didn't lose all my friends."

"Lloyd, you made a mistake, granted it was a huge mistake that's leading to the destruction of our city at the paws of a giant cat with a ridiculous name." I started before Lloyd put a hand to his forehead and told me,

"You just _had_ to remind me..."

"But the others will forgive you, just give them time..."

The others' conversation with Garmadon was becoming pointless enough to where Lloyd interjected with,

"Hey, you know what? We should, uh… We should be practicing silence right now."

"Sorry. It's just, when you talk, I don't wanna listen, but when he talks, I wanna listen." Jay admitted before the other voiced their agreements.

"I agree."

"I've always said he's weak-voiced."

"I think we're gettin' off point a little bit, just a little bit."

"You see what I mean about the weak voice? *Like a little bit!*" Garmadon made a weak impression that sounded more like Lloyd if he had inhaled a bit of helium.

"That's how he talks."

"Do it again."

"*A little bit!*"

"Oh, that's not how I… That doesn't sound like me!" Lloyd tried to protest, causing Kai to make his own impression,

"*He sounds more like this.*" This time it sounded more like if a duck could talk and it had a weird accent.

"Look what he's doing to us! We have to focus." Zane suddenly announced before Xia finished his thought,

"He's turning our minds through clever mind tricks."

"Thank you, Zane, Xia." Lloyd told them before I added,

"Finally people who actually use their brains, or CPU's."

Both their eyes blinked and lit up before Xia declared,

"Our sensors indicate a fork in the road."

"Our sensors, aka our eyes, can also see that." I told them somewhat blatantly obvious tone as we looked to the two directions we could go in as Nya read the descriptions off the two signs,

"Hmm. The right path is long, arduous, and enlightening. And the left... A shortcut!" The right path seemed lighter while the shortcut looked darker and just screamed 'death with the skull resting on top of its sign.

"Why would they say 'possible'? They would know, right?" Jay questioned, slightly unnerved by the skull

"We're taking the shortcut. Let's roll!" Garmadon yelled

"No, no. Okay. Just wait. Master Wu said we should stay on the right path."

"What? You wanna listen to the guy who fell off the bridge or the guy who didn't fall off the bridge?" Garmadon argued.

Soon enough, we were going through the shortcut path, which turned out to be too spooky and creepy for even me to handle as Jay whimpered from behind me and Lloyd,

"Hey, Zane, Xia, could you two record this and then never play it back to me?"

"Yes."

"Um... Guys?" Kai looked nervously at our surroundings; a brokedown arena where skeletons and weapons littered the ground in piles every few feet around us.

"Maybe this isn't such a great idea." Nya added before I responded sarcastically,

"_Nooo_, really?!"

"This is my least favorite place I've ever been in." Jay whimpered again as thunder and lightning sounded and flashed overhead.

"Did you hear that?" Lloyd asked as a distinctive growling noise was heard from all around us.

"Uhhh guys?" I pointed to the shadowy figures that were scurrying from behind all the ruble before a few of them started toward us.

"We're backing it out." Lloyd spoke through the corner of his unmoving mouth to where the others didn't catch on at first.

"What?"

"We're backing out."

"What did you just say?"

"We're backing out."

"Go, go, go.*

"Back it. Continue to back it out. Continue to back it out."

As they hurried to back out of the area with Garmadon's cage they saw that a few of the figures had torches in their hands making everyone even more nervous.

"Alert. More danger."

"I'm gonna throw up."

"What do we do?" Nya questioned as they became surrounded on all sides by the figures and they all cowered around the cage.

"There's too many of them."

"Wait a minute. Oh, my gosh. La-Loyd, they look like my former General Number Ones." Garmadon realized as the faces of the charred generals were revealed in the torch's light, "You guys look great. Your skin has such a lovely glow. Have you all been tanning lately or something?"

"_We_ were _fired_." One general growled before a slurping noise was heard and another came to the front,

"_Out_ of a _volcano_."

"Oh! Right, right, right. Yeah, but other than that, you're well?" Garmadon still spoke like everything was alright before Lloyd asked nervously,

"Uh, Garmadon, did you fire all of these generals out of a volcano?"

"No! Not all at the same time."

"Like that makes it better…" I grumbled to myself as I readied a heavy looking branch that was by my foot to defend myself with.

"Don't worry. These guys are like family. They love me. Right, Generals?"

"Oh, we're _family_ all right."

"Ninja, go!" The others yelled with uncertainty as they separated to fight the generals, but failed miserably.

"Guys, wait! We need to use our ninja powers." Lloyd tried to encourage the others.

"What do we do? We're worthless without our mechs." Jay responded as he was being beaten down by four generals at once.

"Come on. Remember what Master Wu told us. Nya, you can make a flood to wash these guys outta here."

"The only hope for water is if Jay has another accident in his pants."

"Yeah, she's right. We gotta get outta here!"

"Ow, that hurts." Zane states as another general hit his head with a spear before Xia pushed the general back only to be struck on the back with a blunt club.

"That nearly breached my processors." Xia looked to her back to see small sparks popping out.

"Hey back off!" I used my branch to ward off a general that tried to strike me with his spear and twisted it out of his grip before kicking back another general that tried to sneak up behind me.

"Let's go!" Kai called out as he and the others started to separate again.

"No, no, guys. Use your elemental powers. We have the power! AAAHH" I looked over from where I had finished bashing another general with my makeshift weapon to see that Lloyd had been buried under a pile of generals.

"Lloyd!" I cried out before a sharp jab to the back of my neck filled my vision with spots as I felt myself being thrown over someone's shoulder and shoved against something hard before I completely passed out with someone whispering reassuring words to me.

AN- Sorry it's been a while since I updated this but like I've said in my other stories, school has been a bit of a killer of creativity for me. I know this chapter wasn't really all that interesting but I hope to put in some more fuzzy moments between Aeria and Lloyd in the next few chapters leading up to the epilogue chapter.


	11. Bonding Experiences

Aeria's POV

I could hear the singing and feel the abrupt yet rhythmic jolts of the surface beneath me before I even fully opened my eyes.

"~We've got Garmadon~

~And these random kids~

~We are going to kill them~

~Oops, we shouldn't have said that.~"

I opened my eyes to see that I had been shoved into the cage with Lloyd and his dad as we were making our way through a crumbling village filled with the fired generals. As I sat up, groaning while rubbing the back of my head where I was hit, I heard Garmadon order,

"I command you to release me, my son, and his girlfriend. That's an order, Generals."

"Not his girlfriend." I groaned out as I started to stand up, Lloyd grabbing my arm to make sure I didn't strain myself too much.

"You alright?" Lloyd asked me after he hesitantly let me stand on my own as I put a hand to my forehead.

"Yeah, just a little groggy… and my knee is killing me." I sat back down to rub the knee that was throbbing and felt like it was on fire as Garmadon started "commanding" his general,

"~I can't hear you!~" One general sang out.

"I said, I command you to release us."

"Hey, the reason Bob can't hear is 'cause his eardrums blew up after you shot him out of the volcano!" Another general explained pointedly.

"~I can't hear you!~" Bob sang out again before the second general mocked,

"You stupid butt!"

"What? Can you believe what they're saying? It's like I'm being treated worse than anyone in the history of the world. A good thing you never have to experience anything like this, La-Loyd. You either Purple Ninja."

"Violet…" I growled under my breath as Lloyd told his dad sarcastically,

"Yeah. Yeah. No one _ever_ says mean things to me when my dad knocks over their Pilates studio-"

"-their waxing salon or kayak repair store-" I added in before Lloyd finished with,

"-or that place that sells toner cartridges."

"Mocks the color of your uniform as if it was already hard enough for a girl to be taken seriously in a team with only two other girls." I spoke bitterly as I took my cloth belt and wrapped it around my knee as a makeshift bandage.

"And you _better believe_ no one ever makes fun of me, for not knowing how to throw or catch a ball."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa hehe hold on I know it's funny, but what kind of jerk would make fun of you for that?"

"You're kidding, right?"

"You gotta stand up for yourself, and shoot them out of a volcano. That's how I roll. You gotta get yourself a volcano, kid."

"Pfft Yeah. Blowing stuff up and never putting it back together. That is what you're best at, isn't it?"

"I still can't believe you were the one to go to my parent's wedding." I mumbled, but Garmadon must've heard me because he remarked,

"Tiny Ri Ri? I _knew_ I recognized you!"

"_Hey_, only my friends get to call me that!" I shot back defensively.

"Yeah, besides her parents who…" Lloyd added but he could tell he made a mistake bringing them up as I sniffed and wiped my eyes with my sleeve quickly.

"Who what?"

"It's none of your busin-"

"No Lloyd, it's fine," I looked Garmadon in the eye before saying, "My parents died in a car accident a year ago."

"Wait, Ronnie's gone?

"Ronnie?" Lloyd questioned before I answered before asking,

"My dad. You knew him?"

"Sure did, I was his best man at his wedding."

"More like the worst man." I smirked and Lloyd held back a chortle as Garmadon sighed and told us,

"Ronnie was my best friend before I took on the whole 'conqueror' dream, his mastery of wind was like nothing I had ever seen."

"Wait my _dad_ was an element master?" I exclaimed and before Garmadon could answer, the Slurpee lady from before jumped onto our cage and laughed maniacally,

"Well, hello! We have got a present for you."

"Fire him! Fire him! Fire him!" The general continued to change from around us as a giant volcano came into view from behind the village the generals had made for themselves.

"Oh, an exact reproduction of my volcanic lair. And let me guess, you're going to fire us out of it." Garmadon asked a bit bored.

"Oh, no, we're gonna fire you _into_ the volcano. The 15 million kelvin magma will melt your skin before you can even feel the heat!"

"Dark…" I muttered before I felt the lady grab my arm from through the bars to pull me against them and hiss in my ear.

"You bet _sister_."

"Hey back off!" Lloyd pulled me away as the Slurpee lady commanded another general,

"Omar, take them to the top."

"Okey-dokey." "Omar" pulled a lever and our cage was brought up to the top of the volcano where another group of generals were waiting to unhook the cage and started pushing it, and us, toward the center of the volcano.

"Fire him! Fire him!_ Fire him_!"

"Uh guys? Not seeing a way out of this!" I tried bending the bars to create a space but they held firm.

"Woah!" Lloyd was about to be burned from the side by a spurt of lava before I pulled him out of the way and we held each other as we were pushed closer to the edge.

"Oh boy…" I muttered before realizing that Lloyd was still holding me even though I let go and looked down blushing a little before Garmadon started talking to his son,

"La-Loyd…"

"Yeah…?"

"Um... I… I just…"

My ears picked up the sounds of pained grunts along with over dramatized ninja cries.

"Wait, do you hear that?" I pulled myself out of Lloyd's grip to grab onto the bars just as the others punched their way through to us.

"Lloyd! Aeria!"

"Guys!" Lloyd exclaimed with some relief.

"Oh, hey!" Garmadon waved a bit awkwardly.

"Oh, my gosh! How did you all get up here?"

"Oh, man. We did all that stuff that you and Master Wu told us to do."

"Ninja style, bro."

"Whoa!"

"All right. Let's get outta here and make it to the Ultimate Ultimate Weapon." Nya unlocked our cage and we stepped out.

"That's not gonna be easy, other girl ninja. Because I fired a ridic amount of generals." Garmadon motioned to all the generals that were gathering to climb the mountain to us.

"Another reason why not to turn against your own employees, they'll always revolt in the end." I mumbled to myself before Lloyd devised a plan,

"All right, all right. I got an idea. If we can hold these generals off long enough, we can build a way out of here." Lloyd devised before Garmadon added,

"Great idea. You kids start building. La-Loyd and I will throw you bricks."

"Lloyd, I need a two-by-two." Kai requested pulling up some of the ground.

"Here it comes. Guh!" Lloyd tried to throw a brick but it ended up flying backwards.

"That was terrible." Zane stated.

"Throw me a couple one-bys." Nya asked.

"I got it. Check this out. Huh!" The piece landed right at his feet as the others began to comment,

"How can you be so bad at this?" Kai questioned as he slapped a brick onto their creation.

"Yeah. You got a mental block?" Cole asked, slightly worried.

"Hang on, everybody. You ninjas, keep at it. La-Loyd, you're coming with me. I'll be in charge of the tunes." Garmadon pulled a device from under his cape as I critiqued,

"Is _now really_ the time for dramatic theme music?"

"It is precisely the moment. I'll just put it on shuffle here. Please not Jim Croce, please not Jim Croce."

Right on cue, Jim Croce's "I Got A Name" song played and I had to slap my hand over my mouth to keep from bursting out in laughter.

"Ah! Jinxed us. Whatever. All right! Ninjas, keep building! La-Loyd, I'm gonna teach you how to throw."

"Let's just hope this goes better than the bridge..." I mumbled before helping the others push their creation off the edge as it rolled down the volcano side and we continued to build while simultaneously fighting off the fired generals.

A shattering noise caught my attention before I saw a broken window and Lloyd and his dad running away with grins on their faces and Lloyd laughing, making me smile at the sweet, albeit not very good timing, father child moment

"Lloyd! Over here, I'm open." Cole climbed up the mast and waved his arms around to catch a piece.

"You can make it Lloyd! Go for it!" I shouted up to him with a supportive fist pump.

The two by one flew through the air, nailing Cole in the face with enough force to make him, everyone else, and the machine fly backwards a bit.

"Nice! Dude, that was awesome!"

"You did it, Lloyd!"

Kai and Jay cheered while the others expressed their excitement through whoops of excitement.

Pretty soon, Lloyd was throwing bricks and pieces left and right, even managing to throw one to Cole backward and another to Xia upside down in midair.

Everyone voiced their praise to Lloyd as he and Garmadon got onto the helicopter before Garmadon started to panic,

"La-Loyd, something's happening to my face. It's turning upwards in an unfamiliar motion. Oh, I think they've deployed nerve gas! It's happening to you, too!"

"Listen, listen. We're smiling!" Lloyd explained as his face also displayed a giant grin.

"What is this 'smiling'?"

"Go with it! It feels good, right?"

"It does. Oh, this whole experience is so foreign to me."

"I know, right?" Lloyd said as he climbed the walls of the village to retrieve the last piece we needed for the helicopter to actually fly.

"Yeah!"

"All right, here it comes." Lloyd hoisted the piece onto his shoulder ready to throw it when we caught sight of the Crazy Slurpee Lady behind him with an insane grin on her face.

"La-Loyd!" Garmadon tried to warn him.

"Look out!" I cried out before she tackled him off the tower to the ground.

"Can't you get this thing to move any faster?!" I asked Nya.

"May I remind you that we just whipped up this piece of junk in the last 10 minutes?" Nya retorted back as she pulled a lever and the accelerators kicked in just in time for the lady to be knocked back from Lloyd as she drew a sword on him. The helicopter skidded past him, but Garmadon was on his son in a heartbeat, the others following behind us more slowly, pulling him up from the ground and leaning him against a hill,

"La-Loyd, are you okay?"

"Yeah, yeah! I think it was my arm. Is it bad?"

"Whoa!" Garmadon and I flinched back as he saw that his whole arm was missing.

"I don't wanna look!"

"It looks okay, I guess." The others caught up with us and they all flinched back as well, looks of horror on their faces.

"Scale of 1 to 10, how bad is it?" Lloyd asked nervously.

"Oh, I'd say it's about a seven-point… Arm-ripped-off."

"My arm is _what_? What did… Say it one more time?"

"Just, don't look down. Don't look down below your neck."

"Don't do that face. Why are you doing that face?"

"It's just a harmless little… I gotta puke. It's disgusting." Garmadon gagged in disgust trying to hold onto Nya's shoulder before she shook it off.

"Should I look?" Lloyd's gaze went down to the space where his arm should be and scream before trying to scoot away in surprise,

"I looked! I have no arm! I have no arm! No!"

"I told you it was bad." Garmadon said and I harshly elbowed him, ignoring the look he gave me as Lloyd continued to freak out,

"Ah! That's way worse than anything I could have thought! That's bad!"

"You're gonna be fine. Let me text your mother." Garmadon pulled out his phone and started doing so.

"Dad, no! I need you! Stay with me! Be here with me right now, all right? Do something." Lloyd pleaded with his dad with large, teary eyes.

"Besides if that Temple of Fragile Foundations doesn't kill us, Koko will when we get back to the city." I snarked with my arms crossed.

"All right, I'm gonna find it. What does it look like?" Garmadon devised before Lloyd supplied,

"It looks like my left arm, except it's the right one."

"Oh, of course, yes. Okay, everybody, fan out, form a grid. Find La-Loyd's arm."

My attention was caught by Slurpee Lady as she was starting to get up and was looking pretty ticked off.

"Imma have you leave you guys to that, I gotta deal with this lady first." I informed the two of them as I grabbed a bamboo pole from the ground and ran toward the lady full speed, or as full speed as I could with my knee still burning.

"Rah!" She grabbed another pole with a broken end and started trying to hit me with it, but I dodged it with blocks and ducks before sweeping her off her feet and pinning her in place.

"You're on the wrong side _sister_." She told me crazed again before I groaned and told her,

"Ok look, I'm not too crazy about Garmadon either, but he is my best friend's dad so I kinda hafta deal with him. And what's with the whole 'sister' thing, I've never seen you before in my life?"

"All who have or will be turned will be related forever!" She cackled out before I deadpanned

"Oh I get it you're just crazy." Before she kicked my knee, making it pop slightly, but I still stood my ground before punching her hard enough to knock her out.

"Oh look at that," I remarked to myself as I started kicking my knee around and the pain was gone, "I must've dislocated it in my mech crash earlier, thanks for that." I patted her shoulder before using my pole to pin one of her collar spikes to the ground and ran back over to Garmadon just as he announced,

"Found it!" Holding up Lloyd's arm as he cheered,

"Here we go!"

"Okay. I'm gonna pop that arm back into place." Garmadon's grip shuddered as he neared the arm back to its socket,

"Okay, wait, wait, wait. But it's only gonna hurt for a second, right?"

"Hurt for a second? No! This is gonna be agony for a while. Who gave you that misinformation?"

"All right, all right, all right. Just do it, just do it, just do it." Lloyd closed his eyes as he readied himself.

"Okay. On the count of 12…"

"No, no, no, no. I don't wanna do 12. Let's do... Let's do, like, a, you know, three."

"Okay, three. One, two… Ah! I wish your mom was here to do this." Garmadon pulled away as his hesitation worsened before Lloyd urged him,

"You're killing me. You got… You gotta just do it."

"All right. One, two, three."

Lloyd's arm went back into its socket with a small pop before Lloyd opened his eyes back up to remark before moving his arm around freely,

"Wow. It, uh… Feels, uh… It feels pretty good."

Garmadon sighed in relief at his son as Lloyd continued to move his arm around to make sure it was alright.

"Feels pretty good. Heh You did that, put my arm back on like a real dad." Lloyd looked up as his dad with admiration in his eyes.

"You… You called me 'Dad.'" Garmadon smiled as he said that.

"Yeah..."

"Wow! I guess I… I guess I did. I really stepped up there in kind of a 'Dad' way."

"Right?"

"You both handled yourselves pretty well..." I smirked, patting Garmadon on the shoulder as he and Lloyd both realized I was there.

"Ari!" Lloyd jumped up and threw his arms around me, surprising me.

"Oh my gosh your knee, what-" Lloyd pushed me away to see that I wasn't limping and looked back up in confusion.

"I'm alright, turns out it was just dislocated too." I pushed his hands off before messing with his hair to where it went into his eyes and I turned to see the others calling us to leave as more generals approached in the distance. After the three of us boarded the helicopter, Lloyd announced,

"Let's get moving." Before Garmadon added,

"Come on, everybody, let's go! Temple, here we come!"

AN- Hey Guys! I'm really sorry this is beyond late, but with all the Corona Virus drama that's been happening, I'm going to be home from school for a month. On the bright side, that means I'll be able to work on more chapters since I already get ahead on my homework for the week and I should be posting another chapter later this week or next week for this story, my Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy OC Inserts, and a new story for my Short Story book over on my MCSMGamerGirl account.

Through these rough times, if you guys ever want to talk about anything, I'm going to be pretty unoccupied so feel free to PM or send me a message if you need to vent or just want to talk ^^

See Y'all in the next chapters!


	12. The Temple of Fragile Foundations

3rd Person POV

After escaping the Village of Fired General Number One's, the ninja and Garmadon figured it would take a while to get to the Temple so Nya decided she would take the first shift of flying while the others lounged around the ship. Aeria was sitting on the tail of the helicopter, just out of the way of the propellers, looking at the small cluster of lights that was Ninjago, wondering how her brother was doing when Lloyd came over to her and sat down next to her.

"I'm sure he's fine..." Lloyd assured her as if reading her mind.

"I know, it's just… *sigh* I never really knew that much about my parents than I thought I did. I thought they were the perfect, happy couple who everyone envied since they were 'made for each other', but now I find out my dad was an element master and he kept that from me and my brother, maybe even my mom..."

"Wow that's uh… some pretty heavy stuff..." Lloyd admitted.

"I mean it's my own fault for thinking everyone in my family is perfect when we're...not…and now I don't know what to think or believe anymore..."

"You see the best in people and that's nothing to be ashamed of, I know all these family secrets may be hard to handle and trust me they don't get any easier the more you learn, but like you wrote in that card, 'Friends become our chosen family' and we'll be here to help you through that stuff, the way family does… or should have." Lloyd grumbled the last part under his breath, but Aeria smiled ruefully and slid her hand out from under Lloyd's to place it on top to say,

"You gotta admit he _is_ making a lot of progress as a dad."

"I guess, but where was all this when I was growing up?" Lloyd asked a bit moodily.

"Well, you have the chance now."

"Switch!" Nya called out from her seat next to Garmadon for the next shift.

"You should take it." Aeria nudged his side while motioning with her head to take the next shift and Lloyd smiled his 'alright alright I got it' smile.

"I'm coming!" He announced as he got up and went to switch with Nya.

"Least I got some quiet time now." Aeria whispered to herself reaching a hand up to stroke her hair out of her face when she noticed that her mom's hair clip was missing.

"Oh no..." Aeria hopped off the tail and back onto the main center of the helicopter as eyes started to tear up, panicking while searching the floor for any trace of a purple sparkle.

"Am I correct to assume you are looking for this?" Xia came up to Aeria with her hand outstretched. In her palm rested the jeweled dragonfly and Aeria sighed before taking it and clipping her bangs back up.

"Thanks Xi." Aeria thanked her gratefully.

"You are welcome, Riri. It fell to the ground after you tackled the woman who attacked Lloyd."

"Well I'm glad your mechanical eyes saw it or I would have never noticed." Aeria gave her friend a hug before she rolled back over to her brother to plug back into the wall.

Aeria looked over to the driver and passenger seat to see Lloyd talking to his dad and smiled before gazing off into the distance again.

3rd Person POV

"Hey, La Loyd, let me show you how to fly this thing. Hands, 10 and two." Garmadon tried to teach his son motioning with his hands the positions.

"I build and drive mechs all the time. I think I'm good." Lloyd told his dad after chuckling a bit.

"Oh. Okay. Yeah, you're probably right." Garmadon answered dejectedly and Lloyd noticed the down look on his dad's face as he remembered Aeria's words,

_Give him a chance..._

"Um... What, uh… What were you saying? 10 and…" Lloyd motioned with his hands, but making sure to keep one hand on the steering wheel.

"Oh, two! 10 and two." Garmadon answered excitedly.

"Two. Two."

"Yeah, just 10 and two."

"Okay, all right, all right."

"That's kind of a rule of thumb in driving." Garmadon explained and Lloyd answered,

"That's good to know."

"And don't forget to check your rear view. You wanna see what's back there. You have blind spots everywhere."

"Rear view, check."

"Keep your eyes peeled. You really wanna be looking ahead."

"Noted, thank you. You want me to really open this thing up?" Lloyd asked excitedly.

"Sure. Yeah, let's see what it can do."

"Okay." Lloyd hit the accelerator and the helicopter went shooting through the sky with unbelievable speed with everyone either whooping in joy or screaming in fear, like Garmadon was doing,

"AAAAAAHHHHHHH! Okay, that's enough! That's too fast."

Lloyd hit the brakes, making everyone on board lurch forward before continuing at a slower pace over the mountains.

"You didn't like that?" Lloyd asked his dad jokingly.

"I mean, I liked it. If I was driving, I would be fine with it."

"Sure, sure. Right. I felt a little scared. Were you scared?"

"Um, yeah. I'm not gonna lie, I might need a change of armor." Garmadon admitted, a bit mortified.

Lloyd chuckled before they settled back into silence that was shortly broken when his dad asked him,

"So what's the deal with your purple friend?"

"'Violet', dad."

"What's the difference?"

"I don't know, Ari's a bit sensitive about that, but I have no idea why."

"You know what I think?"

"What?"

"It's because her mom loved violet, saying it was 'calmer' than purple."

"Really?"

"Yeah Ronnie told me she hated it when people said there was no difference."

"Yeah… Hey, what were Ari's parents like when they were younger?"

"Where to begin? Ol' Ronnie was a real comedian, always cracking jokes, trying to get people to smile. We met after he was dared to make me smile, he succeeded of course, he called it his 'greatest accomplishment', but he used to say it was because he gained a new friend that day."

"He was really an element master?"

"Oh yeah, one of the best I'd ever known, he discovered he was an element master when we went mountain climbing and I almost fell. This was before I was bitten by the snake that was bitten by a spider." Garmadon held up his four hands in a climbing motion.

"Uh huh suuuuure..." Lloyd told him in a joking skeptical manner.

"Anyways, I was so sure I was a goner, but when I opened my eyes, Ronnie's holding his hand out toward me, controlling the wind to where I flew right over his head and landed safely at the top of the mountain."

"Seriously?"

"Seriously."

"Coooool, and Ari's mom?"

"She was... something else, she and your mom were best friends as kids but she moved away along with Ronnie a few years before your mom and I met. When we all met back up for a short while, just long enough for their wedding, I could tell she and Ronnie were perfect for each other the way few opposites could be to each other."

"I guess that's why Ari grew up with that mentality about them…"

"How did they… you know…?" Garmadon asked sadly.

"The four of them got into a car accident on the one freeway leading into Ninjago last year."

"On what day?"

"Why?"

"No reason…" Garmadon looked away in clear discomfort before reminding his son, "I want you to guard the brake a little bit."

"Okay, okay, got it, got it." Lloyd listened, a little miffed that his dad was avoiding the subject, but it went away as he focused on getting to know him in the now.

"You're doing great, buddy, this is going real... Goat!" No sooner than he shouted it, Lloyd saw the goat on the mountaintop and pulled on the steering wheel to change course.

"Goat, goat, goat!"

Unfortunately, the back of the copter hit the mountain, narrowly missing the goat as it ran away, and steering it off course as it stopped in midair and crashed down onto a flat plane.

After skidding to a halt on the edge of the plane, everyone breathed a sigh of relief until it tilted down the edge further, cuing everyone to get out as fast as they could

"Guys!" Aeria cried out as her leg got tangled in the wires that the lanterns were hung on and was about to go down with the ship until Lloyd rapidly pulled her out and the ship balanced out again as the two of them made it back to the others.

"Is everyone okay?" Lloyd asked everyone else.

"Not really..." Jay admitted until Nya gave him a hug and he perked up a bit, but only a little as they all set their sights on the giant temple in front of them.

"Huh?" Everyone gasped as Garmadon introduced,

"Behold, the Temple of Fragile Foundations."

Right before a loud rumble from underfoot caught their attention and everyone struggled to stay upright before it stopped.

"The helicopter crash has destabilized the entire area. And I'm not blaming anyone, but if I ever see that goat again, he and I are gonna have words. And you can bet some of those words are gonna have four letters. And I'm not talking about 'goat.'" Garmadon huffed before fixing his cloak and they all started walking, or in Jay's case crawling, up the stairs leading up to the temple.

"This is my new least place I've ever been." Jay whimpered as they finally reached the front doors.

"I've spent a lot of time here, and trust me, doesn't get any better." Garmadon told them.

"Wait a minute. So, you know this place?" Lloyd questioned as he looked at the giant, looming front doors.

"Who doesn't know... their childhood home?" Garmadon answered as he brushed away some dust from a welcome mat that read "The Garmadons."

Everyone gasped before he stated,

"Yeah, this place is so unstable I had to move to a volcano just to feel safe."

Before pulling up the mat to reveal a key underneath,

"For once using a cliched idea actually pays off." Aeria shrugged before Garmadon gestured forward,

"Well, shall we?"

After unlocking the door, the doors creaked open to reveal a dark space inside that looked endless and foreboding.

"Stay close. I will lead you through this perilous…"

"Oh, look, a light switch." Jay flipped a switch to reveal a surprisingly normal looking home, "Do you guys have a bathroom I could use?"

"Nope."

"Fresh fruit! Finally, food!" Nya rushed forward to the bowl of fruit that was set in the middle of a table.

"I'm starving!" Jay agreed until the sound of crunching came from Nya as she tried to take a bite out of an apple,

"Ow! I think I chipped a tooth."

"Yeah, my parents were really into plastic fruit."

"Whoa! Check out those old photos." Cole pointed to the wall where various old photos were hung up.

"Look at that!" Jay pointed to a photo of Wu and Garmadon as babies, Wu already with his signature hat and beard, while Garmadon had a small patch of black hair on his head and was bawling his eyes out, and everyone started commenting,

"Aw! They're so cute!"

"Look at his baby goatee!"

"I mean, Master Wu looks like a really old man."

"He even schooled you back then." Cole pointed to another picture of Wu defeating Garmadon in a tournament with both his arms behind his back and Ronnie in the background wincing.

"Pfft whatevz. Come on, let's go find the Ultimate Ultimate Weapon." Garmadon pushed the ninja along before Lloyd stopped at a photo of him as a baby, and his dad and a warrior lady were smiling down at him.

"Wait. That's... That's you. And that's…" Lloyd realized who the lady was right as Nya gasped and announced,

"It's Lady Iron Dragon, my hero!"

"Yes, Lady Iron Dragon, aka La Loyd's mom." Garmadon confirmed his son's thoughts.

"Wait, what? Mom was a ninja?"

"That's right. She was the most awesome ninja warrior I'd ever seen..."

Aeria's POV

As Garmadon started explaining how he met Koko, I wandered around the house, looking for any clue that would lead to the Ultimate Ultimate Weapon, still mocking the name in my head. I made it to a room where there was a bed on one side of the room, a fish tank, and a desk with a black colored journal.

On the wall, a picture of a young Garmadon and a boy with black hair with an orange stripe in it caught my eye.

"Dad?" I pried the photo off the wall and pulled the wedding photo I had out of my pocket to compare the two and realized that my dad must've hid his highlight for the wedding, but it was definitely him in the photo with Garmadon.

"Orange? Is that even possible, then again are green and purple really any more natural?" I asked myself as I fingered my own highlight and thought about my brother's.

"This must be Garmadon's room… hmm I was expecting more lava and maybe some skeletons." I looked around and my gaze fell on the book on the desk in the corner. I picked it up, only for another photo to fall out from its pages: one where my dad and Garmadon were posing in front of the Destiny's Bounty with their arms over their shoulders and Wu in the background, looking at them with a rueful smile. I smiled myself before looking to the book and contemplating whether or not I should read it,

"Ari?" I jumped a bit at Kai's voice and quickly tucked the book away into the pocket of my gi before turning to him,

"What are you doing in here?" He questioned crossing his arms.

"Looking for the Ultimate Ultimate Weapon." I answered straightforward.

"Find anything?" Nya asked as she walked in with the others, minus Lloyd and his dad.

"Well, if I wanted to hide something that had the potential to defeat a giant cat, I'd hide it in the least likely place." I put a hand to my chin in thought as I leaned against the bed edge, stumbling a bit when it moved.

"Well how 'bout that?" I pushed the bed frame up to reveal a secret compartment underneath with a chest in it.

"Lloyd! We found the Ultimate Ultimate Weapon!" The others called to Lloyd and Garmadon and within a minute they made it to the rest of us.

"Here, in the bedroom! We think it's in that chest." Zane explained to him.

"Open it, open it, open it!" Jay jumped up and down in excitement.

Lloyd opened the chest to reveal some building pieces within it.

"Whoa!"

"What a bunch of juuuunk." Nya commented.

"Maybe there's something important _under_ it." Jay suggested so they poured the chest out onto the floor, but the pieces didn't look any more important and there was nothing else in the chest.

"This is the Ultimate Ultimate Disappointment."

"That is accurate." Xia stated before Lloyd took a closer look at the pieces and realized,

"No. Wait. There's a piece for each of our elements." He picked up each and handed them to the corresponding team member, the piece glowing for a second in their grasp.

"Fire."

"Whoa!"

"And Earth."

"This rocks!"

"And Water."

"H 2, oh yeah!"

"And Ice."

"Cool."

"And Lightning."

"Ah!"

"And Wind."

"Now I'm really a fan."

"And I'm... Green." Lloyd held up the green piece that looked like a tree branch before awkwardly stuttering out and chuckling, "B-but I'm so happy for you guys hehe Yay..."

Everyone put their pieces back into the chest and we started to head out but Lloyd and Garmadon fell behind so we waited for them so we all waited in the foyer as they seemed to engage in a conversation,

I decided to pull out the journal and read through it, reading about different adventures Garmadon went on with my dad, before the writing changed and it became clear they were written after my dad moved away. Soon, adventures were being replaced by ideas for Ninjago domination and one entry hit me in particular,

**"Tested out new missiles on only road leading in or out of Ninjago. Caused mayhem and destruction, but far too weak. Caused only small car crashes."**

My blood froze when I looked at the date it was written: one year ago. I wanted to drop the book to the floor in my frozen state until I was snapped out of it by Lloyd pleading,

"Dad, _please_ don't. Come back to Ninjago with me and _save_ the city."

"What?"

I finally looked up to see Garmadon holding the chest with our pieces in it and backing up as everyone approached him.

"What's going on?" I whispered to Xia and she responded,

"Garmadon wants Lloyd to rule Ninjago with him, but he does not seem to agree with that idea."

I looked over to Lloyd as he continued to plead with his father and I looked on, conflicted whether I should feel sorry or angry at them for fighting about this.

"Dad, _please_, don't go."

"If I couldn't change _then_, what makes you think I could change _now_?"

Cole was smacked away with the chest after he and Zane attempted to surround Garmadon, but he fought back.

"No, no." Lloyd urged them to stop, but they didn't as Zane was tossed away,

"Stop!"

"No, no, no!"

"Back off!"

Kai rushed forward to help Zane get the chest away, but they were both punched away with Garmadon's upper arms as the lower ones continued to hold onto the chest.

"No way!" Nya grabbed the chest and tried to tug it away, but was kicked back in the face.

"Hey, that's my sister!" Kai rose back up, fueled by his brotherly instinct, before flipping through the air to land on Garmadon's shoulders,

"Get off my face!"

Kai managed to flip Garmadon to the ground right before Jay snagged the chest from his grips.

"Bam! I got it!"

"Give that back!" Garmadon tossed a swivel stool at him, knocking him down and the chest landed on the ground, where Lloyd picked it up.

"I can help you. We can do it together."

"If you just give me the chest, we can talk about it."

"I can't. You'll just leave." Lloyd managed to toss it away to Xia before his dad swiped his feet off the ground where I helped him up and stayed with him as a full game of keep away had arisen, the winner deciding what would become of our pieces.

"Lloyd, catch it!" Nya readied the chest to be thrown as Garmadon charged toward her.

"Run, Lloyd! Run!"

"Come on!" I hurried right behind him as he readied to try and catch it.

"I got it! I got it! I got it!" Lloyd swiped his arms in the air too late as the chest landed a few feet away from where he landed on the floor, everyone groaning at his inability to catch.

"Predictable but regrettable."

"Bummer…"

"Don't worry, I'll get it." I notified Lloyd as I ran toward the chest.

"Oh, La Loyd." Garmadon charged right through the others all at once and pushing me back toward Lloyd as he tried to stop his dad, but we ended up butting heads before falling to the ground, only getting back up to see Garmadon about to close the doors with the key in hand saying,

"I should have taught you how to catch."

"No!" Lloyd made it to the door too late as the sound of the lock clicking sounded from the other side. He slid down to the floor, hands still on the door in despair before I helped him back up.

"Lloyd… I-" My sentence was interrupted when the whole building started to shake uncontrollably, signaling that it was about to collapse with us still inside.

"Get outta the way! This whole thing is coming down!" Jay threw himself under a table in a desperate attempt to hide.

"We don't have those pieces." Cole just stood in one place panicking as Kai yelled after avoiding a falling chandelier,

"Yeah, and we don't even have our mechs."

"We're doomed!"

"Oh, no! We're gonna die."

"What do we do?"

"Our chances of survival are 0.00…"

Pretty soon, everyone was huddled on the ground, slowly losing hope that we were going to make it out of this situation alive so I turned to Lloyd.

"Lloyd, what do we do?" I grabbed Lloyd's arms and shook him as he stared off, looking deep in thought before it looked like he realized something,

"Inner peace! Inner piece! Guys. Guys, we don't need those pieces. The Ultimate Ultimate Weapon is inside of you."

"What?" Everyone chorused at once before Lloyd started his speech,

"Yes, you _have_ the power. Look _within_. Harness what you already have inside and let it out. I believe in _each of you_. Nya, you can create water. Kai, you can make fire."

"Okay. Alright. I can make a fire." Kai told himself before everyone got up and started doing the Spinjitzu motions as Lloyd continued to encourage us,

"The power is inside of all of you. Now, calm your mind. Concentrate. Build up your powers. Just think about earth, fire, water, wind, ice. And you, Jay, lightning, baby. Do it! Jay, you got the power! Say, 'I've got the power!'"

I looked over to notice that sparks were starting to fly around Jay before he yelled,

"I've got the _power_!"

And bust through the blocked door like it was nothing, allowing us to get out of the temple

"I've got the _power_." Cole made some more motions before clapping his hands upward to send out the force of an earthquake strong enough to knock away the falling pieces of ceiling that were about to crush us.

"Good work, Cole. Go, go, go!" Lloyd directed us to the stairs before they were destroyed by some more rubble,

"I've got the power."

"We too, have the power."

Nya and the Ice Twins stepped forward to create a bridge, Nya shooting out water from her fists before the twins froze it into a bridge

"Here we go. Come on, hurry up." Nya directed everyone as we continued to run. When we heard another loud ***Boom*** behind us, we saw the head of one of the statues rolling toward us.

"What now?" I asked as it got closer.

"Kai, your turn." Lloyd directed.

"Got it. I've got the power!" Kai made a forward punching motion before a clicking sound was heard.

Unfortunately, the head caught on fire and still rolled toward us, causing Kai to start panicking,

"I think I made it worse!"

"My turn! I got the power!"

I thrust a fist forward to send out a wind gust to put out the flames while holding my other hand up to hold the boulder in place with a constant wind vortex circling it.

_"Jump, Lloyd. Jump."_

"OK I wasn't the only one who heard that right?" I looked behind to see the other still running toward the cliff edge before jumping off. Seconds later, the Destiny's Bounty rose up from below the cliffside.

"Great jump, students." I heard Master Wu's voice through a megaphone and everyone exclaimed before I shouted up,

"Hey aren't you forgetting something?!"

"Aeria, get out of there!" Lloyd leaned over the railing to yell to me.

Nodding, I released the wind vortex and ran to the edge of the cliff before leaping up and using a wind gust to lift me into the air and land on the deck.

"That was awesome!" Lloyd praised before pulling me into a hug.

"Master Wu! You're alive!" I smiled up at our master as Lloyd continued to hug me.

"Of course. I'm a ninja master who lives life on the edge and cheats death at every turn." Wu told us, making the others chorus,

"Wow! Really?"

"No. I thought being dead would make you listen to me more. And I was right."

"Classic 'learn from your elders' move." I smirked a bit as Lloyd finally released me from the hug.

"Master Wu, we found our elemental powers." Jay informed him.

"All because Lloyd wouldn't give up on our training." Cole added.

"Lloyd saved us." Nya praised.

"He also decoded your needlessly cryptic metaphors." Xia added.

"Lloyd, I'm so proud of you. You helped your friends be great. And that makes you truly a ninja master. Now, let's go save the city from the giant kitty." Wu commended his nephew before directing the Bounty to fly toward Ninjago.

While the others prepared themselves for what we would find, I decided to take another look at the journal, steeling myself when I came to the journal entry from last year. I turned the page and the three words that were written before the whole thing ended made me catch my breath,

**"I'm sorry Ronnie…"**

"What uh whatcha reading there?" Lloyd came up to me and I wiped my eyes before telling him in a cracking voice,

"Your dad caused the accident that killed my parents…"

"What?"

"But I don't think he meant to… Lloyd…" I put my hand on his and I looked him in the eye before continuing, "Your dad has good inside him, it's just…been away for a while, but maybe _you_ can bring it back."

"When we get to Ninjago, I'll do what I have to do…" Lloyd told me with no clue whether he meant that as a good or bad thing before he got called over by Wu.

_He'll do the right thing, I know he will…_ I thought to myself as the city came into view.


	13. Final Battle

3rd Person POV

"Ninjago straight ahead!" Wu declared from the steering wheel as the city neared.

"More like what's left of it." Nya noticed that most of the city had been reduced to rubble and smoking craters, causing Lloyd to start explaining the plan of action.

"Alright team, we need-" He was cut off as the ship steered a bit off course.

"Uh Master Wu, the city's thataway." Cole pointed out as they headed for the outskirts of the city.

"I know, we're picking up a reinforcement."

"Who?" The whole team, minus Aeria, asked while she just stood at the edge of the ship with her arms crossed and a knowing smile on her face.

Meanwhile, on the streets of the city, a boy with a work uniform was battling against several of Garmadon's soldiers, blasting them away with harsh gusts of wind.

"Don't they ever give up?" The boy growled as he punched a soldier that tried to sneak up behind him without even looking until he heard chains rattling and felt the back of his uniform get snagged on a line that lifted him into the air.

"What the-?!"

"What's up bro?" Morro looked up and saw that Aeria was waving down to him before Master Wu lifted the anchor to deposit him onto the deck.

"Aeria!" Morro bolted over to his sister and grabbed her in the tightest hug he could muster.

"C-can't breathe…" Aeria managed to choke out before Morro put her at arm's length with both hands on her shoulders.

"Aeria Lillith Wiater, where have you been?!"

"Morrrooo you said you'd never reveal my middle name to people…"

"Well that's what you get for disappearing you little punk." Morro harshly noogied her head before taking in what she was wearing.

"You mean to tell me that you...a-and they…" He pointed to the others as they waved awkwardly at him.

"Yeeeeaaaahhhh… I'm the Violet Ninja…" Aeria confirmed his suspicion, lifting her arms up a bit.

"I knew it."

"You did?! Then why didn't you tell me?"

"Tell _you_? _You_ should've told me!"

"Guys!" Lloyd cut off the two before the argument could continue any further, "I hate to break up the reunion, but we still have that cat to deal with."

"Are all the citizens out of the city?" Wu asked Morro and he nodded.

"They're still evacuating out to the bay but the city itself has been cleared and the cat's currently in the downtown area."

"Then we have to go straight through the city."

"How? Those generals are going to be expecting us." Nya questioned.

"I think it's time we took a page out of the Fushia Ninja's book…" Aeria crossed her arms and grinned.

The plan involved bringing the Destiny's Bounty right into the line of fire to some of Garmadon's soldiers, but at the last second, they swerved out of the way and parked the ship right under their feet. They all hung from the upside-down ship, waiting for the soldiers to pass overhead.

"All right, Ninjas, follow me." Lloyd announced before the all dropped off the ship and pulled their masks on, in Morro's case he wore his old mask that he kept in his back pocket for emergencies, declaring,

"Ninja, go!"

"Nya, we need to get to Garmadon and that cat fast." Lloyd told Nya after landing on the bridge.

"You got it." She reported before they all ran towards the cat, right before some soldiers in their flying ships gathered to form a blockade in front of them.

"Here they come." Lloyd notified the others, prompting Nya to tell the others

"Come on! Let's go!" Before jumping off the bridge and toward the river below.

"Follow Nya." They all landed in a pyramid on top of Nya's shoulders as she started to run across the water with Master Wu following them from the side.

"You guys are too heavy..." Nya started to struggle to hold up all eight of the others evident from the way her eyes were scrunching up under her mask.

"We got this." Aeria looked to her brother and they both nodded in unison before leaping off of Nya and began to fly, taking Xia and Zane with them to lighten Nya's load.

"I see you've been practicing." Wu commented to Morro as they continued to run while they flew.

"Yeah, I figured one of these days I was gonna have to help my little sister deal with all this."

"I'm just sorry I didn't tell you sooner, we could've been working together this whole time." Aeria told her brother before Wu interjected,

"We cannot change the past but we can change the future… right after we deal with the giant kitty."

"Now there's a sentence I never thought I would hear from him and trust me I've heard him say some weird stuff before." Morro laughed before they made it to land and the guys on Nya all leaped off while the Ice Twins and Wind Siblings landed on the ground from the air.

"Zane, Xia, freeze these guys out." Lloyd directed them as a crowd of soldiers started heading toward them.

"We copy." The twins both leaped up and created a wall of ice by shooting it from their hands and feet in punching and kicking motions in front of them before Lloyd instructed,

"Kai, make a smokescreen."

"Yeah, baby! Fu-fu-fuego!" Kai happily obliged as he sent out two streams of fire from his hands to melt the ice wall and create a smokescreen cover that allowed the team to sneak right past all the soldiers as they stumbled around in the smokescreen in confusion,

"Where'd they go?"

"I can't see them anywhere."

However, even as they got through the first line of defense, another wave was waiting for them all as they got closer to where it looked like Garmadon was struggling to control the cat.

"Jay, now's your chance, buddy." Lloyd encouraged him right before he reported,

"Roger that." and summoned a bolt of lightning to ride up into the sky and electrified the gliders nearing them from above.

"Let's rock!" Cole announced as he was being surrounded on all sides by soldiers in their mechs before making some spinning dance movies and leaping up to pound down on the ground to create a shock wave that knocked them all back.

"Oh yeah!" Nya whooped as she summoned a wave from the river and rode the top of it like a surfboard as it consumed all the crab mechs within its waters before back-flipping off of it to give it a kick to send it back to the river.

"Hey!" Aeria was grabbed from behind and reeled in by one of the giant crab mechs that kept her trapped between its pincers and struggled to pull herself out as the driver gloated,

"Hey I got one!"

"Let me go or else you'll have to meet him." Aeria warned the driver, but he only scoffed and questioned mockingly,

"Oh yeah? Meet who?"

"Him." Aeria pointed behind him while smiling wryly as the driver looked behind him to see Morro, with his arms crossed and his eyes narrowed threateningly.

"Her brother..." He growled before using one hand to lift the driver out of his seat and fling him toward the river using strong airstreams.

"Let's get you out of that _pinch_." Morro snickered as he messed with the control panel, trying to find the right switch to release his sister.

"Ha ha ha." Aeria laughed sarcastically, "Like I didn't see that one comiiiiiiinng!"

She was dropped from the claws right before the end of her sentence and was plummeting toward the ground until she was caught by Lloyd, who had slid on the ground right under the mech to catch her after he saw the trouble she got into.

"Phew... Thanks." Aeria patted Lloyd's shoulder twice before they both got up and met up with the others as they finished defeating the soldiers around them, leaving no one between them and Garmadon as he started to threaten the cat, face to whiskery face,

"Hey, cat, back off! I'm Garmadon, baby. I'm the greatest warlord of all-" His statement was interrupted by Meowthra's snarl right before she decided to eat him right off the edge.

"Somebody help me!" Garmadon's screams were muffled from being inside the cat, but Lloyd could still hear him as he exclaimed,

"Dad?"

"Dang..." Aeria grimaced from behind them.


	14. Endings and New Beginnings

3rd Person POV

"Please!" Garmadon's voice was still audible from inside the cat as Lloyd and his team ran towards Meowthra and the people were starting to surround the area behind them to cheer them on,

"Go, ninjas, go!"

"Hip hip hooray! The cat ate Garmadon!"

"Now all we have to do is take out the cat and Ninjago is saved."

However, Lloyd didn't seem to agree with the crowd as he made eye contact with his uncle as he gave him a knowing look, even as the people continued to shout from behind him,

"Get him!"

"Take out that monster!"

"Blast that cat with your awesome hand powers.

"La-Loyd! Please help me!" Lloyd could still hear his father's pleas as Meowthra started shifting in place as though it felt guilty about eating the warlord.

"Oh, I can use my fire. But is that too much?" Kai suggested, but with some second thought to it.

"Or I could blast him with my water. Cats hate water." Nya input.

"Guys... I don't think..." Aeria trailed off as she saw Lloyd speak to Wu,

"You were right, Master Wu. I need to walk the path that only the son of Garmadon can walk." Before he walked forward and took off his mask, revealing his identity to the whole city.

"Oh, my gosh! The Green Ninja is Lloyd Garmadon?"

"Lloyd!" Koko cried out after she managed to push her way through the crowd to the front, but was stopped by Wu before she could go any further.

"All we have to do is scare off Meowthra and we've won." Jay tried to reason, but Lloyd responded with a quiet,

"No..."

"What?"

"Uh, Lloyd, where are you going?" Kai questioned as Lloyd continued to walk forward.

"Lloyd? Come back." Zane tried to advise him, but Aeria held out an arm to stop the others from either following him or prevent him from going forward.

"Let him go..." Aeria quietly told the others, who looked at her in disbelief,

"Why?"

"He's doing the right thing..." She lifted her mouth into the tiniest smile conceivable as she watched him try to coax the cat to him, gripping onto her brother's hand with a tight grip from her anxiousness nonetheless, but she trusted her friend with his decision.

"Here, kitty, kitty, kitty. Yeah, come here." Lloyd called the cat to him with a few whistles and tongue clicks, earning another shout from his mother,

"Lloyd, no!"

"It's okay. He's got this." Wu held her back and assured her as her son kept going toward the cat.

"That's a good kitty. You're okay. Yeah, you're okay." The cat got close enough to Lloyd to where his hair was blown back by a single breath, but he continued to urge the cat to come to him, until his hand was right on her nose, "Yeah, yeah, that's a good kitty. What a sweet, sweet kitty. Everything's gonna be just fine. Hey. I know it. I know it. You don't mean to destroy everything." Lloyd sighed before he continued, this time, it became more apparent that it wasn't the cat he was talking to anymore, but his father inside,

"When, uh… When people look at you, they see a monster. But I know that you just feel scared and alone. I know how that feels. To be judged unfairly. So, um... I just wanna say that I forgive you. And… I'm sorry. When I said 'I wish you weren't my father,' I didn't really mean it. What I… What I should've said is…"

At this point, Lloyd was softly sobbing, tugging on everyone's heartstrings as he continued with a significant stammer to his already teary voice,

"I wish we didn't fight all of the time. I-I just I-I wish I could've spent more time with you. And that that you could've seen, like, everything I've been through, but but you weren't there. I just I-I wish we could get that time back, and… I-I need my dad. I just... I need my dad."

From inside the cat, Garmadon had listened to his son the whole time with thoughts of guilt and regret for all his past actions and to hear those words coming from him, he couldn't hold back the tears and one fiery drop fell from his eye, causing the cat to cough as if she were about to release a hairball.

"Oh! Whoa! Whoa!" Garmadon yelped as he came out in a puddle of cat saliva onto the street.

"Dad!" Lloyd rushed over to his father as he attempted to cover his face, but he was adamant about checking to make sure his father was OK, "Are... Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." Garmadon managed to choke out as more tears threatened to come forth.

"You're alive!" Lloyd threw himself onto his father to give him a hug before getting off as Garmadon spoke,

"Son?"

"Yeah?"

"Did you... mean all that stuff you said? To the cat?"

"Every word." Lloyd answered honestly.

"Well, I know for a fact that the cat feels exactly the same way."

"Dad? Are you crying?"

"No! It's just that I'm kind of allergic to cats." Garmadon started blubbering with all the tears that began to run down his face until Lloyd pulled him to his feet.

"Lloyd!" Koko finally ran forward from the crowd to hug her son.

"Mom!"

"Let me look at you. Let me look at you. Are you hurt? Let me see your fingers and toes." Koko checked for said appendages, only to add, "Okay. You still don't have fingers and toes. That's good."

"Is everything okay?"

"I'm... I'm fine. I'm good."

"Lloyd, I was so worried about you."

"Mom. Mom, wait! I'm, uh... I'm sorry." Lloyd apologized to his mother with sincerity.

"It's okay. I'm just… I'm just so happy you're all right."

"No. Mom, I'm really sorry... I took you for granted. All you ever did was support me. The real me. The person I am on the inside."

"Oh."

"I'm really sorry, Mom."

"I love you so much." Koko told her son as they embraced in a hug no one and nothing could break.

"I love you, too."

"Bring it in. Let's hug this out." Just as Garmadon was going in to hug his wife and son, Koko pushed him away to not ruin the moment for her, "Okay. That's cool. Uh… I found two people to hug me over here." Garmadon made the "hugging" motions from earlier until he was stopped by a sarcastic,

"OK enough with that lame trick already." Coming from Aeria and Morro as they both stood to the side with their arms over each other's shoulders.

"Hey you two…" Garmadon hesitated as he walked over to the two of them.

"Yeah?" Morro looked at him in question as he started,

"What happened to your parents… that-"

"Was your fault?" Morro finished for him.

"Yeah…"

"I know…"

"You do?"

"Yeah, even before Ari told me."

"Man you never tell me _anything_…" Aeria grumbled before her brother ruffled her hair and she let a smile crack through her moody expression.

"Then how come you guys aren't more mad at me? I know if I found out the worst warlord of the land had my parents inadvertently killed I'd be.. be-"

"Shooting them out of a volcano?" Aeria supplied helpfully.

"Exactly!"

"Because we know how much our father meant to you as a friend…" Morro started.

"And we know you didn't do it on purpose, and there's nothing to do to change the past, so we could either spend our lives feeling angry about it or forgive." Aeria finished with a light smile.

"And we choose the second one."

"Oh you two!" Garmadon grabbed both of them into a hug that threatened to crush them.

"Can't breathe…"

"Now you know how I felt earlier…"

"Sorry!" Garmadon let them go and they spent a few seconds regaining their breath before Morro told him,

"Besides, we have each other's backs and we always will."

"Yeah I heard you guys were doing pretty good, aside from you falling behind on rent payments every so often." Garmadon commented mildly, but it caught the sibling's attention.

"Wait, how did you…?" Morro looked at him in surprise until Aeria pieced it together,

"Ms. Tyson."

"Come on you really think I'd do something like that and just leave you guys on your own like that, I may have been pretty wicked, but I'm not completely heartless."

"I find that a bit debatable." Aeria remarked and she and Morro laughed before Lloyd went up to his uncle to tell him,

"Uncle Wu, I know why you wanted me to be the Green Ninja."

"Oh, you do?" Wu asked, intrigued to hear what he would say.

"Yeah. Green is the color of life. It flows through all living things, connecting them all. The way I connect the Ninjas. Or the way I connect my family, whether we're together or not."

"Some powers are ones you cannot see, but those are the most important powers of all..." Wu advised in a sage tone before talking to the fourth wall, Garmadon being the only one to notice,

_Lloyd was a hero._

"Who are you talking to?"

_He saved Garmadon and he saved his family._

"We're standing right here."

_And the whole city of Ninjago._

"Where are you going?"

_They even made Meowthra the mascot._

"She's so fluffy!"

"I love her."

"Wu, come back!"

_Koko, Nya, and Xia opened a school to teach former shark generals life skills. _

Koko, clad in her Lady Iron Dragon armor, and Nya and Xia, in their ninja gi's, spent one day teaching the generals Spinjitzu as a method of releasing their past of evildoings.

_And Garmadon taught Lloyd two very important things._

"Hey, catch!" Garmadon, Koko, and Lloyd had gone to Omakase and Garmadon tossed five bowls to his son.

"Whoa."

Lloyd, thrown off by the surprise pitches, only narrowly caught them with two in his hands, two under his arms, and one under his chin.

Lloyd's face burst out in a grin as his mom and dad were clapping to celebrate another learning achievement before embracing as a family.

_And…_

"Come on son you can do it…" Garmadon cheered from where he was hiding behind the school sign an hour after class ended, leaving the front lawn nearly empty as Lloyd walked up to Aeria with a violet colored rose hidden behind his back.

"H-hey Aeria…?"

"Yeah Lloyd?" She turned to face him, starring him with her minor appearance change, instead of down, her hair was up in a ponytail with the dragonfly clip holding her bangs out of her midnight black eyes.

"Umm uh… I uhh..." Lloyd started to choke on his words before looking back to his dad, who made a 'breathe' motion and he took a deep breath before starting,

"Aeria Wiater, I think you're an amazing, smart, funny, brave, and confident girl. You've always been there for me no matter how bad the situation looked, usually with some criticism to help put things into perspective, and had my back no matter what anyone told you otherwise and ever since we first met I've been amazed at how much you've been able to teach me about accepting myself for how my friends truly see me when it seemed like the world was against me." Aeria's eyes widened a bit when Lloyd pulled out the rose and asked, "Will you go out with me and uhh if you don't totally hate it or y-y'know me b-by the end of it, will you be my-" Lloyd was cut off as Aeria threw her arms around his neck and hugged him before pulling away to smile at him and answer,

"I'd love to…"

"G-great I-I mean uh yeah…" Lloyd gave her the rose and she took it and smelled it right as her brother pulled up to the front of the school on his motorcycle.

"This weekend, right?" Aeria asked after stopping from walking toward her brother.

"Y-yeah." Lloyd stuttered out.

"See ya." Aeria waved as she climbed onto the motorcycle and they drove away, leaving Lloyd standing there dumbfounded for a few seconds before celebrating in place.

"Yes yes yes yes!"

"You did it La-Lloyd!" Garmadon scooped up his son in a hug before he clutched his own smiling face with a slightly panicked, "I'm being overwhelmed with another new feeling, I think I'm p-proud of you..."

"Heh thanks dad..." Lloyd smiled up at his dad before he commented,

"Y'know maybe in the future she'd make a good daughter-in-law."

"Daaaaaaad." Lloyd playfully whined.

"What? What'd I say?"

They both walked home with their arms over each other's shoulders laughing and smiling at each other.

_And Lloyd taught everyone that even if you're different, you can still do great things._

The End

AN- That's a wrap for the Lego Ninjago Movie! I hope you all enjoyed it and I have some good news concerning my other Ninjago fanfic "The Second Master of Wind"; I have completely finished revising it and am set to republish the whole thing, but I wanted to know if you all thought the chapter setup as it is is too short since each chapter usually has a range of 1,000-2,000 words and there are 28 chapters in all, counting the Day of the Departed segment.

Would it make it easier for you all, those of you who actually read it, to read if the chapters were longer and the whole book had fewer chapters, or are they good as they are? Please comment or send me a review to let me know what you'all think.


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